Troubled Macau hotel THE 13 has reopened for business less than four months after being put up for sale by its owners.
According to information from the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), THE 13 Hotel has recently reopened on a five-star five-star luxury hotel license that expires on 31 December 2024. IAG spoke with hotel staff, who revealed that rooms are already booked out until September with bookings after September not yet available. They also stated that THE 13 will only accept bookings made by telephone or in person, rather than online.
A report by TDM-Rádio Macau on Monday noted that not all of the property’s 199 hotel rooms are open, with renovation works currently underway on parts of the property that had previously remained unfinished when THE 13 closed in 2020.
Located in Coloane to the south of the Cotai Strip, THE 13 Hotel had obtained its hotel license for 2024 at the end of last year and submitted an application to the Land and Works Bureau for an amendment to the Repair/Maintenance Works (Modification) Plan in order to resume operations. It had been observed in recent days that more lights were on in the hotel than usual.
The brainchild of long-departed Chairman Stephen Hung, THE 13 had been envisioned as an uber-luxury hotel with space for 66 VIP gaming tables aimed at capitalizing on Macau’s booming VIP segment of the early 2010s. Instead, a series of funding and construction delays saw the property open in September 2018 with no gaming and with a number of rooms unfinished – all at a cost of US$1.6 billion.
In February 2023, the Macau Court of First Instance published a notice that The 13 Hotel Management Company Limited was in bankruptcy, with the property eventually put up for sale in March of this year at an asking price of HK$2.4 billion, overseen by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). It was reported that some 24 companies had expressed interest.
Former owner South Shore revealed in October 2021 that it had ceased all operations and was insolvent following a statutory demand issued by one lender demanding payment of HK$3.28 billion (US$423 million) in outstanding loans and interest or face a winding up petition against the company.
Long-time Chairman Peter Coker Jr, who stepped down from the company in October 2022, was arrested in Thailand in in January 2023 after being charged by the US Department of Justice with stock market manipulation.
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