Situation “terminal” without locals gaming
Asian Coast Development Ltd., which operates the Grand Ho Tram Strip casino and hotel in Vietnam, has announced it will add a residential tower and a number of oceanfront villas to the resort.
Grand Ho Tram Strip opened in 2013. The Kahuna Ho Tram Strip development, expected to break ground during the fourth quarter of 2017, will add 244 residential units including 44 seaside villas and a 12-story hotel tower with eight penthouses and 164 condos.
“The company that first brought Las Vegas to Vietnam and brought the best Asian tour event that the golfing world has seen is today thrilled to announce that we are riding that Hawaiian wave across the Pacific and on to the shores of Vietnam with our new residential development,” said statement from Michael Kelly, executive chairman and CEO of the Los Angeles-based company.
According to CalvinAyre.com, condos at the new addition by Ho Chi Minh City-based Korn Architects will be priced at about $88,800 with villas to start at approximately $350,000.
“We have made it our primary focus to ensure that Ho Tram is Vietnam’s entertainment capital and in line with this The Grand Ho Tram Strip has unveiled countless new lifestyle amenities,” said Kelly. “We are viewing Kahuna Ho Tram as an extension of this. This is not just another residential development; this is a chance to be a part of all of the energy that has made the Grand Ho Tram Strip what it is today.”
The Ho Tram Project Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Asian Coast and recently became the first company to submit an application to host Vietnamese nationals for a pilot gaming project, reported the Asia Gaming Brief. It’s underwritten by Phil Falcone—described by Bloomberg News as a “fallen hedge fund titan, Securities and Exchange Commission bête noire and thwarted disrupter of the wireless industry”—who’s invested some $450 million in the property over the past 10 years, and “hasn’t gotten back a dime.”
However, Bloomberg added, don’t county out Falcone just yet. “He’s envisioning the creation of a Las Vegas or Macau in a youthful nation of 95 million with an economy that’s growing at a robust 6 percent a year.” It may work—but only if Vietnamese citizens are allowed to gamble.
“I don’t want to compare it to Las Vegas in the ’40s and ’50s,” Falcone said. “But you know what? Somebody put a casino in the desert, and it looked pretty silly at the time.”
“This thing here basically could have been a starship from Vegas lifted up and hauled over,” added Gary Martin, the resort’s head of development. “Crash! And here it sits.”
Kelly told the new outlet that Ho Tram is profitable, so he and Falcone can decide “whether we take on a strategic partner, look to recapitalize the company with maybe an IPO or look to sell it.”
But without locals gaming, he said, it’s questionable if Falcone can get “an adequate return on his investment.”
Or, in the words of Shaun McCamley, who once held Kelly’s job, “If Ho Tram isn’t going to get locals, then it’s terminal.”
