Melco Resorts’ new luxury hotel brand Libertine at City of Dreams won’t become a reality until at least mid-2019 with the hotel tower set to remain as The Countdown for the next 12 months.
The company confirmed its hotel plans to Inside Asian Gaming following inquiries regarding the launch date of Libertine, the brand first announced by Melco Resorts Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho at G2E Asia last month.
The Countdown Hotel, which replaced the Hard Rock Hotel in July 2017, was originally intended to last less than a year with its innovative “Countdown Clock” – designed by Dutch artist Maarten Baas – counting down to the opening of Morpheus.
Melco Resorts said at the time that The Countdown Hotel would be given a new name once the clock hit zero.
Instead, the Countdown Clock has now been reset to 31 May 2019 – more than 8,000 hours away as per the countdown itself – as the target date to start renovations to Libertine, sources at Melco told IAG.
However, the closing date of The Countdown is still not set in stone with the company planning further renovations to Nüwa hotel – formerly Crown Towers – beforehand. IAG has been told that May 2019 is “the earliest The Countdown will close” after which Libertine will come live.