Phase II opening likely in 2021
Hong Kong-listed Summit Ascent Holdings, operator of the Tigre de Cristal casino resort in the Russian Far East, will add a number of full-service apartments and villas as it prepares for the opening of its Phase II development. Tigre de Cristal is the only integrated resort in the Primorye Integrated Entertainment Zone, about 30 miles from the port city of Vladivostok.
“By next summer, we plan to build new rooms and a small restaurant, right next to the existing property,” Chief Operating Officer Stylianos Tsifetakis told GGRAsia. “We plan to build about eight villas, and approximately 20 to 22 serviced apartments by next summer. This expansion would allow us to accommodate about 90 people.” Tsifetakis said the additional rooms will address “the lack of room capacity” in the region ahead of the Phase II opening, which he said is “progressing very well.”
During the first stage of Phase II, the company will invest US$250 million to US$300 million to add 300 additional rooms, another gaming venue, conference space, restaurants and a large shopping mall, “taking into consideration that Vladivostok will become a duty-free zone within Russia,” the executive said. The expansion of the property will also feature an indoor beach club.
Phase II will open either in “the latter half of 2020, but, more realistically, early 2021,” he said, more than a year beyond the original planned opening date in 2019. The venue opened in October 2015.
He noted that according to news reports, more than 2 million people visited Vladivostok in the first eight months of 2018, “an increase of 21 percent year-on-year, which is very encouraging to the local industry.”
