The Primorsky Krai Development Corp., located in Russia’s Far East, will auction off three parcels of land earmarked for casino development, reports GGRAsia.
The plots—ranging from 7.9 hectares (17.2 acres) to 19.7 hectares (48.6 acres)—are located in the Primorye Integrated Entertainment Zone, a special economic district earmarked for casino resorts, located about 30 minutes from the Pacific port city of Vladivostok. The bidders must be prepared to invest between US$120 for the smallest site and $300 million for the largest. The winner of the latter bid will win the right to offer 100 gaming tables and 500 gaming machines.
The bidding period began on July 14, with applications due by August 28. The winners will be announced the following day.
Primorsky Krai Development is a government-owned company charged with developing the IEZ, now home to just one operational casino resort, Summit Ascent Holdings’ Tigre de Cristal, which opened in October 2015. A second resort from Cambodian operator NagaCorp broke ground in May 2015, with a Phase I opening anticipated for the first half of 2019. Diamond Fortune Holdings Ltd. is also planning a casino resort called Selena World, expected to be complete in 2019.
Among the duds in the district is the Royal Time Group, which began construction on its Firebird resort in March 2016 but was plagued by delays in construction. On June 1, a Russian arbitration court upheld a decision by the Primorsky Territory Corp. to sever its relationship with Royal Time.
Meanwhile, Tigre de Cristal has boosted visitation to the Primorye, say local officials. “The entertainment complex is visited by about 1,000 people per day, whereas the casino operators started with 100 visitors a day,” said Primorye Vice Governor Evgeny Polyansky. “The ratio of foreign and local visitors is almost proportional, but 95 percent of the casino’s revenues comes from foreign tourists.”
According to a Casino.org report, the Primorye region can tap into some 400 million people who live within a two-hour flight, including tourists from Mainland China—if they want to brave the chillier weather. Though this isn’t Siberia, it also isn’t Nevada or Macau. The average high temperature is less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit six months of the year.
