Macau casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment has finalized an operating agreement with the Philippines’ Belle Corp. that puts Melco Crown in charge of Belle’s planned Belle Grande Manila Bay resort casino in the Philippines capital.
Scheduled to open in 2014, Belle Grande will likely be the second of four large-scale casinos planned for the government’s Bagong Nayong Pilipino Entertainment City, which consists of about 100 hectares of reclaimed land on Manila Bay. The first, Solaire Resort & Casino, owned by Bloomberry Resorts, opens this Saturday.
Belle Grande will occupy about 6 hectares and is receiving “significant resources” from Belle toward its completion, the company said.
Of the remaining two resorts planned for Entertainment City, one is a joint venture between the Phillipines’ Alliance Global and Malaysian conglomerate Genting, which also operates a Resorts World-branded casino in Manila, and a joint venture called Tiger Resorts Leisure and Entertainment that is being led by a subsidiary of Japanese machine gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada’s Universal Entertainment.
Belle is an affiliate of SM Investments Corp., an entity controlled by Henry Sy, reputed to be the Philippines’ wealthiest individual.
Hong Kong- and US-listed Melco owns and operates the City of Dreams and Altira casinos in Macau and owns the territory’s Mocha Clubs machine gaming franchise. The company is developing a third resort in Macau’s Cotai resort district.
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