Mass market focus
Enrique Razon, chairman and chief executive of Bloomberry Resorts Corp., says there’s room for a casino in Quezon City, outside the Philippines capital of Manila. But critics of the planned development say the new development will compete directly with Manila’s Entertainment City economic zone, which features two megaresorts with gaming—including Bloomberry’s Solaire—and has two more in the pipeline.
“There’s a market (in Quezon City) that doesn’t have easy access” to Entertainment City, Razon told Malaya Business Insight.
Bloomberry bought land in Quezon City from the National Housing Authority in 2015. Its Sureste Properties Inc. subsidiary paid PHP1.98 billion (US$43 million) for a 15,676-square-meter (168,735-square-foot) parcel, reported GGRAsia. Construction of the new resort should start next year. “We’re already working on it now,” Razon said, adding that his gaming license for Solaire allows for two separate casino operations.
Critics of the plan include Willy Ocier, vice chairman of Belle Corp., the group behind City of Dreams Manila. “In the license that we all have, it guarantees a level playing field,” Ocier told Business World. “If the government allows smaller casinos, here, there and everywhere, it defeats the purpose of why we are here, an integrated casino.” Belle and its partner in the jurisdiction, Melco Crown Entertainment, have already spent $1 billion in City of Dreams Manila, according to Ocier.
He told the Philippine Daily Inquirer he doesn’t mind competing in “that environment where casinos are together. People will jump from one casino to another.”
