The largest and most expansive of New York’s new commercial casinos is being rebranded as a Resorts World property to better reflect its Genting pedigree.
Scheduled to open in the Catskills next March, the property has been known throughout its construction life as Montreign Resort Casino. The full new name has not been released yet, but a filing with the SEC said “Resorts World” will figure prominently in combination with wording agreed on by the Genting subsidiary behind the development, RW Services, and its Nasdaq-listed partner, Empire Resorts.
“We believe branding our resort casino a Resorts World property will significantly enhance our ability to market the facility and attract visitors, which will provide regional, national and international exposure for Sullivan County and the Catskills region,” said Empire Chairman Emanuel Pearlman.
Empire’s largest shareholder is Kien Huat Realty III, a company controlled by Lim Kok Thay, chairman of Malaysia-based Genting, a resort conglomerate that boasts the largest racino in the U.S.?Resorts World New York City at the storied Aqueduct racetrack in Queens?and a multibillion-dollar casino hotel under development on the Las Vegas Strip. The company’s global holdings include major casinos in Malaysia, Singapore, the Bahamas, the Philippines and Great Britain.
The naming agreement calls for the partnership to pay Genting a licensing fee based on a “low single digit” percentage of net revenues. Benefits will include participation in the Genting Rewards Alliance loyalty program, which would provide marketing and cross-promotion opportunities to the casino and perks to its regular customers.
“We’re going to have the opportunity to leverage what is pretty much an international gaming and hospitality brand,” said Charles Degliomini, an executive vice president of Empire Resorts. “We’re not literally creating a brand out of thin air.”
This could be a significant plus given the property’s proximity to New York City. Located in the town of Thompson on the site of the old Concord Resort Hotel, a landmark of the Borscht Belt in its heyday, it’s just 90 miles from midtown Manhattan, the closest to the massive metro area of the state’s four new Las Vegas-style casinos.
Priced at $1.2 billion, plans for the resort include a surrounding “village” of retail shops, restaurants, outdoor activities and other entertainment attractions; a golf course; an 18-story hotel; a 100,000-square-foot casino with 130 table games and 2,150 slot machines; and 27,000 square feet of multipurpose meetings and events space.
