Unconfirmed reports have it that the opening of Kazuo Okada’s US billion Manila Bay Resorts has been pushed back a year to late 2016.
Tiger Resorts Leisure and Entertainment, the resort’s developer and operator, had announced a 2015 first-phase opening and recently said preparations were under way for recruiting some 8,000 workers.
“We are trying very hard to open by the end of next year,” said Matt Hurst, executive vice president for casino operations and marketing.
But Adrian Ort, who is heading hotel and food and beverage, told Reuters that Tiger expects the first phase to open “only in late 2016”. He didn’t explain the delay, the news agency said.
One of the reasons may be Okada’s inability to date to secure local partners to satisfy a requirement under Philippine law that restricts foreign ownership of land rights to 40 percent. Negotiations with a number of entities have fallen through. The latest, involving Century Properties Group, a Philippine developer, is mired in litigation that currently prevents Okada from negotiating with anyone else.
Complicating this are allegations that Okada and a number of Philippine and Japanese nationals affiliated with him had set up straw companies to evade the ownership requirement. Intertwined in this is an alleged bribery scheme involving a prominent local businessman, the government’s former top gaming regulator and others.
Okada denies any wrongdoing, but the Philippine government has stated repeatedly that he will not be permitted to open until the land ownership issue is resolved.
Plans for Manila Bay Resorts, which occupies 44 hectares within a special government-sponsored tourist district called Entertainment City, call for 1,000 hotel rooms in the first phase, a domed pool with a Las Vegas-style nightclub and beach club, a luxury spa, 22 restaurants and a 30,000-square-meter casino with 500 table games and 3,000 machine games.
