An investment firm backed by the Rockefeller family is partnering with a Vietnamese oil company to develop a US$2.5 billion mixed-use resort on the country’s south-central coast.
Rose Rock Group and Vung Ro Petroleum Co. have selected a 200,000-square-meter site on Vung Ro Bay, where planned attractions will include 760 hotel rooms, 4,400 residences, retail shopping and 350 marina berths.
“We look forward to making this development an outstanding and preferred destination in the Asia-Pacific region for visitors and a lifestyle choice for residents,” said Collin Eckles, president of Rose Rock, which specializes in real estate, health care and arts and culture projects and has developments in China.
The news was reported by Bloomberg, citing a joint e-mail statement released by the partners.
There was no word on whether the project plans to seek a casino, but the announcement comes as interest in Vietnam as a gambling destination is building among foreign investors, whose ranks have included global industry names of the likes of Las Vegas Sands, Genting Group and Casinos Austria International.
The number of international visitors to the country increased 11% last year, according to official statistics, totaling more than 45 million and good for an estimated US$10 billion in revenues.
The existing gaming industry is small, confined to 20 or so machine gaming venues in hotels and six or seven casinos restricted to foreign passport holders. The largest is the $500 million Grand – Ho Tram, which opened last July on the South China Sea about 70 miles from Ho Chi Minh City with close to 500 five-star hotel rooms. The country’s other casinos are modest operations by comparison, most in the north of the country targeting gamblers from China.
The group behind Ho Tram, Canada-based Asian Coast Development, envisions it as the anchor of an expansive beachfront destination covering more than two kilometers, but the casino has struggled in the absence of locals play. US casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment is a major investor. MGM Resorts International was to manage it but pulled out prior to opening early last year for reasons that were not made public.
VinaCapital Group, the country’s largest fund manager, is planning to build a $4 billion casino resort in Quang Nam province also on the south-central coast. The company also owns a beach resort in Danang.
“We see central Vietnam as at the beginning phase of a growth stage,” said the firm’s CEO Don Lam. “If you look at southern China, it’s only a one-and-a-half-hour flight to beaches. The hotel costs are lower. And it’s a new destination.”
