Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2013 6 COVER STORY deserves mentioning in some detail. Mr Weidner ran Las Vegas Sands as chief operating officer from the planning of The Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip in the mid- ’90s through the establishment of LVS as a power in Macau. Mr Stone served directly under himas executive vicepresident during those years and later was LVS’ president of Global Operations & Construction. In charge on the ground in Manila are COO Michael French and Senior Vice President of Gaming Dennis Andreaci, both highly regarded LVS alumni, and Adrian Ort, who brings extensive Asian experience to the hotel side as vice president, Operations, and general manager. Mr French was a member of the opening team at Altira Macau and later served as senior vice president for Operations at City of Dreams. Mr Andreaci ran table games at The Venetian Macau and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore before moving to Galaxy Macau as senior vice president of Gaming Operations. Vice President, Business Development and VIP Services Lorraine Koo, a 15-year veteran of Singapore Airlines, also came to Solaire from Galaxy Macau. She was assistant vice president of Casino Customer Service. ‘Money To Go Around’ For years the Philippines market was the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation, the government-owned operator and regulator whose 13 Casino Filipino-branded casinos and another 23 slot large art pieces that work as a unifying theme throughout. These are original and exclusive to Solaire, most of them commissioned from emerging Filipino artists: big, splashy, fire- treated resins, cheeky silkscreen portraits, a stunning 500-kilogram beast constructed of 84,000 crystal weights that gives the Dragon Bar its name, clusters of light that soar and tumble high above the main entrance and the VIP lobby, Dadaist dramas in their own right. It’s an atmosphere that succeeds in being intimate and distinctly exciting at the same time. As befits a gambling joint, the food product is varied and elaborate. Wolfgang Fischer was lured from his post as executive chef of Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, reputedly the most expensive hotel in the world, to serve as culinary director. His goal, he has said, is nothing less than Michelin status, something no eatery in the Philippines has ever achieved, and he’s assembled an A-team of Chinese, Japanese and Western chefs to oversee gourmet rooms serving authentic Cantonese (Red Lantern), Japanese (Yakumi) and Italian fare (Finestra) and classic steaks and chops (STRIP). There is an international buffet, Fresh, a place called Lucky Noodles dishing up Asian comfort food in a casual setting, and what Solaire calls its “next generation food court” purveying Asian, Southeast Asian and American quick bites. The executive team is one of extraordinary talent and experience and fortunes plowed into Entertainment City with casinos as the catalyst, four of them, as currently envisioned, each at a government- mandatedminimum investment of $1 billion. Solaire, which opened right on schedule that Saturday, the 16th of March, is the first, and as visions go it is inspired. Renowned casino architect Paul Steelman outdid himself to create an elegantly contemporary resort bathed in natural light that seems to thoroughly enjoy its ability to surprise you with panoramic bay-front views at unexpected turns. The 18,500-square-meter casino is constructed on two levels, VIP above, main floor below. It features 1,200 of the latest slot machines and 295 table games, 95 of themVIP. The adjoining parking garage is a Vegas-sized affair with a current capacity of 1,700 vehicles. The hotel contains 407 rooms labeled“Deluxe,”each a generous 43 square meters—king-size bed, spacious bath with separate rain shower, mini-bar, 46-inch flat-screen TV, wi-fi and iPod dock, 24-hour room service all standard. The 41 “Grand Deluxe” rooms weigh in at 52-57 square meters. Twenty-six suites top out at 94 square meters, all with bay views. Four “Bayside Villas” approximate the size of a suburban family’s home, the largest, the “Chairman’s,” at 936 square meters has its own swimming pool and fitness room and resident chef. “He didn’t want to do something cheap. His voice was to build a quality, lasting product.” That’s Brad Stone, president of Global Gaming Asset Management, a US-based group founded by former Las Vegas Sands President William Weidner that is operating Solaire as an equity partner in the company behind it, Bloomberry Resorts Corp. Mr Stone is speaking of Enrique Razon Jr, the commercial ports tycoon who heads PSX- listed Bloomberry. Mr Razon himself has made no secret of his desire that Solaire “match, and hopefully even surpass”the best a well-heeled gambler will find in Macau, Singapore, Las Vegas or Australia. So Solaire is aiming high then. It shows. Once inside you pick up on it immediately. A palette of earth tones predominates, warm and welcoming, and it’s carried over into the fabrics and furnishings and in the stretches of cool marble and touches of mother- of-pearl. It shows in the way foot traffic is guided around and through these spaces so that each seems to exude a personality of its own. The interior is a veritable gallery of Dragon Bar