Las Vegas Sands teams with seven hotel chains in Macau

Friday, March 18, 2005 | 11:22 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

U.S. casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced today it has teamed up with seven major hotel chains to develop what it called an Asian version of the Las Vegas Strip in the southern Chinese gambling enclave of Macau.

The seven hotel operators are Four Seasons, Hilton Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide, Dorsett Hotel Group and Regal Hotels International, the company said in a statement.

The first phase of the project in Macau's Cotai area -- set to open in 2007 -- will feature seven resort hotels with more than 10,000 rooms, casinos and eight entertainment theaters as well as a convention center amid tropical landscaping.

Las Vegas Sands revealed plans for the "Cotai Strip" about a year ago, naming several hotel groups that had signed letters of intent to participate in the project. Hard Rock International, which was previously named, was not mentioned today. Asian hotel chains Dorsett Hotel Group and Regal Hotels were not previously named by Las Vegas Sands executives.

"Never have so many recognizable brands assembled in one place at one time to create a new international tourism destination almost overnight," Las Vegas Sands President William Weidner said in a statement.

"It took 75 years for Las Vegas to emerge as an international destination. Our intention is to replicate that feat in less than three years," he said.

In a statement, Las Vegas Sands Chairman and Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson said the Cotai Strip is "destined to become Asia's Las Vegas."

Adelson said the project will likely be "the single largest mixed-use tourism development ever constructed simultaneously."

Details of the deals with the seven hotel chains weren't revealed today. Last year executives said the Las Vegas Sands would develop and operate the casinos and its partners will finance and run the hotels under a lease arrangement.

In a research note to investors today, Prudential Equity Group gaming stock analyst Bill Lerner said each hotel company would be required to ultimately have 3,000 rooms with 1,500 rooms built in the first phase. The hotels would be required to double that once occupancy reaches the low to mid 70 percent range, he said.

Las Vegas Sands is among the new casino players in the enclave since the Macau government ended a four-decade monopoly held by Hong Kong tycoon Stanley Ho in 2002.

Last May, Adelson, who made his mark in Las Vegas with the Venetian resort, a replica of Venice complete with canals and singing gondoliers, opened the Sands casino in Macau.

He is now building a replica of the Venetian in the enclave, which is estimated to cost $1.8 billion and will be the centerpiece of the Cotai Strip. The 3,000-room resort, featuring an 850,000-square-foot retail mall and one million square feet of meeting and exhibition space, is scheduled to open early 2007.

Macau, a former Portuguese colony on the South China Sea that returned to Chinese rule in 1999, is 40 miles west of Hong Kong. It attracts thousands of Hong Kong and Chinese gamblers. Cotai is an area of reclaimed land between the islands of Taipa and Coloane in Macau that is being created by filling in the water with sand.

The Associated Press and Sun staff writer Liz Benston contributed to this story.