Sheldon Adelson had not-such-good news to deliver in Singapore this week. The Chairman and Chief Executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp. said Marina Bay Sands, LVS’s new integrated resort in the Lion City will open in January or February, and not the end of this year as previously announced.
Mr Adelson mainly blamed circumstances beyond LVS’s control rather than project management failures. In particular Mr Adelson mentioned limited availability locally of workers and construction materials.
The Straits Times in Singapore had another possible explanation, citing ‘industry insiders’ claiming that LVS, as a foreign company with limited local or regional contacts, has had no choice but to pay top price for materials.
Mr Adelson certainly cited cost and availability of materials early last year as a factor limiting progress at Marina Bay Sands, but at that time he linked it to the regional economic boom. LVS also had to cope with difficult ground conditions in the early phases of the project.
In a ceremony to mark a construction milestone—the topping out of the three, 55-storey hotel blocks—Mr Adelson confirmed the resort’s opening had been put back because of a shortage of manpower and materials.
“We can’t control the flow of sand to make concrete with, we can’t control the availability of steel… and we can’t control the availability of labour due to other projects that are in the market,” he told the media.
Financing was not an issue, although Mr Adelson commented more than once on the cost of the Singapore IR.
In March, Marina Bay Sands President Nigel Roberts said the company was confident the SD7.8 billion (USD5.4 billion) project was “on track for a soft opening by end of the year”.
In other comments quoted by The Straits Times, Mr Adelson said he expected Marina Bay Sands to help Singapore achieve its 2015 tourism target of 17 million visitors spending SD30 billion.
Mr Adelson added that at least 50 percent of the resort—including some hotel rooms, the restaurants, casino and much of the meetings and conventions facilities—will be ready for a so-called soft opening early next year. The rest of the IR will be up and running two to three months later, he said.
LVS President and Chief Operating Officer Michael Leven said engineers were expected to begin work on the sky park atop the three towers in August. Lifting the various pieces of the park—some as heavy as 500 tonnes—to the top of the three hotel blocks, which are 200m above ground, will take three months he said.
