Cambodian gaming operator NagaCorp Ltd. has announced that it will undertake the development of a $4 billion entertainment center on the site of the former White Building apartment complex in Tonle Bassac commune.
In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company said the government has approved the development, which will include four 42-story buildings on 7,757 square meters (83,400 square feet) of land, and a five-block adjacent development with more attractions, hotels and apartments, a high-end outlet mall, as well as MICE facilities and the country’s first “high-tech interactive indoor theme park.”
According to the Phnom Penh Post, NagaWorld posted a 55 percent increase in gross gaming revenue to $1.4 billion and net profit jumped 53 percent to $390.6 million compared to 2017. NagaCorp reported paying $8.81 million in income tax last year.
The Khmer Times reports that Naga 3, when completed, will cover 544,000 square meters (almost 6 million square feet), almost the same size as Marina Bay Sands. “Of this, up to 90 percent of this floor space shall constitute non-gaming area, a project that shall help boost tourism in a country which continues to enjoy growth as a result of increasing overseas visitation especially Chinese visitation which has increased 67 percent on year 2018 from the previous year of 2017,” the Times stated.
In 2017, when the company opened Naga 2, NagaCorp founder Chen Lip Keong said the company “is committed to Cambodia and has great confidence in the continued political and economic growth of the country. The prosperity of Cambodia is the prosperity of NagaCorp. Money made from the society must be reinvested back to the society.”
Last week, NagaCorp Deputy Chairman Philip Lee called the company “the biggest taxpayer in the country” and Naga 3 “the single biggest private sector investment so far in the country.
Naga 3, he added, will “rise from the ashes” of the demolished White Building and “cater to the expected 5.5 million Chinese tourists who are expected to visit Cambodia by 2025.”
