“Paradise Found” may offer gaming
Actor Robert DeNiro could team up with Aussie billionaire James Packer of Crown Resorts to develop a five-star hotel complex in Antigua, says the island’s prime minister, Gaston Browne.
According to the London Daily Mail, Browne said he expects the deal to close within 30 days, with construction to begin within the next 12 months.
DeNiro, who is said to visit the island regularly, was also appointed a special economic envoy of Antigua and Barbuda. His celebrity status “will attract more American celebrities to Antigua and Barbuda and the Caribbean,” Browne said.
The Las Vegas Sun reports that restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa, a DeNiro intimate and business partner, is also part of the deal to take over the abandoned K Club, which has been closed for more than a decade. The resort, once frequented by Princess Diana and young Princes William and Harry, includes “one of the most beautiful stretches of sand in the world, named Lady Diana Beach,” the Sun reported.
There has been no word if the resort, to be named Paradise Found, would include a casino, reported the Mail. But the publication pointed out that DeNiro has served as a pitchman for the Paradise Walker Hill Casino in Seoul (it is not related to the proposed casino); is on tap to promote Packer’s Melco Crown project set to open next year; and is an investor in Nobu restaurants and hotels, some of which are located in casinos.
Packer is well known as a casino developer; the billionaire’s company is now planning a megaresort on the Las Vegas Strip, and has businesses and investments in the integrated resort and entertainment sectors in Australia, Macau and London.
Browne, who was sworn in as prime minister in June, has made it his mission to bring new international investment to Antigua. He signed a $740 million deal with China’s Yida International Investment Antigua to build a giant resort on Antigua’s Guiana Island and the Crump Peninsula.
