Standing 38 stories tall, Solaire Resort North is not only an unmissable addition to the Quezon City skyline but a game changer for Manila’s integrated resort industry as it makes a unique play for the northern customer.
Rising like a lighthouse above a towering hilltop, the familiar Solaire logo stands as a beacon atop the Quezon City skyline – promising safe passage for those approaching by vehicle for the very first time.
Located about an hour’s drive from Bloomberry Resorts Corp’s market leading Solaire Resort Entertainment City in Parañaque, Solaire Resort North represents a multitude of firsts for the expanding Philippines casino industry. It is the first true integrated resort in Manila to be built vertically due to its small 1.5-hectare footprint and the first Metro Manila IR to be built outside of the broader Entertainment City precinct, while Bloomberry has become the first IR operator to open a second IR within the Philippines.
The property’s Quezon City location is similarly unique, designed to tap into the expansive population base located between Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Clark Freeport Zone another hour’s drive further north.
“Solaire Resort North … is driven by a strategic opportunity to tap the northern Metro Manila market within the Philippines and to give us our second Solaire-branded property that we think is another step in putting our brand on the world stage,” explains Bloomberry’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Tom Arasi.
“This region, the northern Metro Manila market, is a thriving economic area.
It’s got a thriving community of gaming enthusiasts and it’s got a robust business district, so all of the pieces are in place. That idea also has to append to the fact that it’s a complementary market orientation to Solaire Entertainment City. The idea is to grow the pie, to greatly enhance choice for our patrons, and to cater to our patrons and our loyalty members whose preferences we’ve learned over the last 12 years of existence.”
Solaire Resort North is situated in the midst of Ayala Land’s expansive 29-hectare Vertis North development, a joint venture urban development with the National Housing Authority comprising apartment blocks, office buildings, hotel towers and sprawling green and lifestyle spaces.
Around 800,000 square meters of retail is located within a short walk, Arasi notes, including the new Ayala Mall right across the road.
“Key to understanding Quezon City and why we’re there, and why it makes so much sense, is that Quezon City and our particular Vertis North location is a nexus of automobile, train and transportation links,” he explains.
“Also, on the soft-touch side but very important, it’s really got a fantastic urban pulse, Quezon City does, which aligns with the integrated resort experience of having a pulse, having excitement, living large – something that you can’t get in almost any other place.”
That Bloomberry and its innovative Chairman and CEO Enrique K. Razon Jr are the ones to have recognized the Quezon City opportunity comes as no great surprise. Not withstanding nearby Newport World Resorts, which opened alongside NAIA in 2009, Razon was the first to build in Entertainment City proper with the 2013 launch of the original Solaire laying the groundwork for the regional gaming hub the Philippines would go on to become.
While City of Dreams Manila and Okada Manila have since completed the so-called Entertainment City quartet – with a fifth IR on the way in the form of Westside City – Solaire has never relinquished its position as Manila’s market leader, holding almost 36% market share in 2023 according to PAGCOR revenue figures.
Solaire Resort North – offering 526 hotel rooms, 160 gaming tables and 1,600 electronic gaming machines – is set to build further on that dominance, with Maybank Securities estimating in a recent note that the property would contribute 22% of Bloomberry’s GGR by 2025 even with full ramp not expected until at least 2026.
According to Arasi, the new venture is aimed at providing a “complementary business model” to the existing Entertainment City property, with Solaire Resort North more oriented towards mass, domestic and slots and Entertainment City towards VIP, international business and tables.
“That gives us great balance,” he says. “It gives us synergy. It helps us serve the diverse customer base that we have, and it helps us to cater to both international as well as domestic business needs.”
Arasi also rejects concerns over potential cannibalization of the company’s existing customer base.
“Cannibalization exists if you have no other demand sources to tap into for a new property,” he says. “We have a great opportunity here to tap into new customers in Quezon City, in northern Metro Manila and all the way up to Clark. There’s actually a very significant catchment area.
“We do share some customers between Solaire North and Entertainment City, but I talked before about how complementary the two properties are. This gives an opportunity for people who live closer to Solaire North to be able to go there more frequently when they didn’t have a chance to go to an integrated resort during the week – when they had a little less time to travel down to Entertainment City.
“Now, when they do have the time, they’ll continue to come down and see us in Entertainment City for the particular facilities that we have there that are especially noteworthy – our retail shops and our theater. So, the two properties will play off each other extremely well: Entertainment City a little bit more of a destination, Solaire North a little bit more of the frequency place for a quick spin on your favorite device.
“The split play between the two properties we’re absolutely sure is going to result in a greater overall spend by our customer base. There is some sharing, but it’s sharing in a very good way because the properties have enough of a differentiation between location and facilities, between convenience and destination, to really make it very additive for us.”
Solaire Resort North’s play for the local domestic market is evident in its features, combining the same luxury adornments of its Entertainment City cousin but with a more family-oriented feel exemplified by the property’s attractive pool deck and its array of F&B offerings. Familiar names to Solaire regulars include fine dining steakhouse Finestra – located on the hotel’s highest 38th floor – signature Chinese restaurant Red Lantern and Japanese favorite Yakumi. More casual is Manyaman, providing a modern take on traditional Filipino cuisine, and Lucky Noodles, located just off the gaming floor and serving an array of popular Asian bites.
There is also a sizeable food court offering 10 different food stations and seating for 600, serving up to 4,000 people per day.
Those seeking something a little stronger can settle in at Dragon Bar – like its Entertainment City namesake positioned in the heart of the gaming floor. Also on offer is the spectacular Sky Bar on Level 38 offering citywide views, and the more casual Pool Café overlooking the well-appointed Pool Deck and adjoining buffet restaurant, Fresh.
According to Solaire Resort North’s SVP of Resort Operations, Gianpietro Iseppi, it is this poolside area that really sets the property apart and showcases what can be achieved when horizontal land space is limited.
“We really made great use of the podium,” Iseppi explains. “At the top of the podium is our pool, our Fresh buffet restaurant, our pool garden, our function areas. We also have our Pool Café as well as a concept called Barbecue Island, so we really made the top of that area very, very usable.
“Our poolside service is very special, which we haven’t had the opportunity in the past to really highlight. The shape of the building really allows a centralized, high energy amenity deck.”
On the hotel side, Solaire Resort North’s 526 rooms include 25 suites starting from 42-square meters and expanding to the 350-square meter, three-bedroom diamond suites located near the very top of the building and complete with their own karaoke and theater areas.
These, says Iseppi, are not just for international VIPs but have also proved popular among the family staycation guests that are so prevalent in the Philippines’ domestic tourism scene.
“Not to sound cliched but location, location, location … I think we’ve done a really good job of finding the perfect space for us where we’re located,” he explains. “There are a lot of businesses in this area like Amazon, Google and some of the biggest BPOs in this country located literally a stone’s throw away, so we have a lot of ability to take advantage of that, but then the staycation side – Friday, Saturday, Sunday – is a really strong market for us because we’re so centrally located. You can spend a few days here very comfortably because we’re located in the retail center of Quezon City and there are a lot of other things for your family to do here. Whether it’s the kids, whether it’s the teenagers, there’s always something to do in this area.”
Iseppi doesn’t try to hide his excitement over Solaire Resort North’s health and fitness club – a “passion project” as he describes it – which once fully decked out will not only include a world class gym but also Jacuzzis, cold plunge pools, experiential showers, a basketball court, two pickleball courts, a health spa and even a rehabilitation center.
“What we want is for guests to go there day one and say ‘Wow, there’s so much more here than I can do in one day’, then come back the next day and get a massage, maybe talk to some of our rehabilitation experts, experience our wellness areas and really get to understand that there is always something new to explore,” he smiles.
“I think that’s what our wellness experience has to be here.”
MICE space includes the Solaire Grand Ballroom – set to host IAG’s Power 50 Gala Dinner this November – with seating for more than 1,300 guests, multiple meeting and boardrooms and the picturesque outdoor ballroom Terrace, itself large enough for up to 200 guests.
Yet it’s the verticality of Solaire Resort North that remains its unique selling point and a source of pride for the company’s executive team.
“Traditionally, very large integrated resorts like ours are typically built on vast pieces of land – multiple, multiple, multiple hectares of land – so designing Solaire North by default had to be unique,” offers Arasi.
“How does that manifest? We have 62 different vertical transportation installations between lifts and escalators, but the end product is seamless. It’s an immersive guest journey, if you will, through the property. There’s lots of eye candy. And the complex construction at this point is behind us. Now we get to benefit from the drama and the intrigue of the design with that all being behind us.”
Among the more obvious compromises is the main gaming floor, split over two separate levels but visually connected via the use of open space and explosive color.
“You know, the image that we have as industry insiders of multi-level being challenged is indeed true to an extent, but it really comes from older properties that become multi-floor and added to over time,” Arasi continues.
“Those fragmented sight lines, dead ends, closed walls and dark and gloomy ceilings have given verticality this challenged reputation and somewhat deservedly so. But we started from scratch, so we were able to embrace the verticality. We have an open atrium. That gives us an intuitive guest view of everything that is going on, so they can be corseted in their local environment, their local surrounds, while also appreciating what else is going on in the property, which leads to a lot of excitement. It leads to a lot of visual and audio connection in the property.
“All of that is magnetized by the fact that we have this seven-story structure, a glass sculpture, that we’ve named The Mangrove, which is as we understand it the world’s largest indoor glass sculpture. So, with that, we were able to create a very unified and a very exciting development.”
Says Iseppi, “We firmly believe that we’ve brought luxury to a new height here.
“When people come here for the first time, I think they are going to be very impressed by the arrival experience. When someone walks through the lobby, they will be in shock and awe of what this property looks like.
“I think they will also be impressed by the service. And for those who haven’t had the opportunity to visit the Philippines in the past, they’re going to be very surprised by the warmth and the care that people have here, which is genuine. So, I think our guests who visit us will be very surprised that they’ve never seen anything like this anywhere else before.
“It’s a mix of everything. It’s luxury, it’s gaming, and that’s the definition of an integrated resort – you want everything to be in one place. We have the array of restaurants, the array of entertainment, the connectivity where people will really appreciate the fact that Solaire Resort North truly is a one-stop shop.”
