Bloomberry Resorts Corp., a company controlled by port magnate Enrique K. Razon Jr., bared on Thursday plans to spend at least $1 billion at its casino and property-development venture in South Korea, scheduled to break ground by 2017.
Razon told reporters that the company is only waiting for the South Korean government to link the two properties that Bloomberry purchased at the start of the year to the islands of Silmi and Muui with a bridge.
“It’s a multipurpose development. It’s not just a casino and a hotel. There is a residential aspect [and] a commercial aspect. It’s an entire planned sort of tourism community,” Razon said at the sidelines of the stockholders’ meeting of the International Container Terminal Services Inc., a company that owns most of the country’s major ports.
He said the gaming license alone costs $1 billion, roughly the price of its slot at the Entertainment City in Parañaque City, although the cost of building the South Korean project is much higher.
Razon, however, said there is a risk the South Korean government may not extend the license to Bloomberry but that Bloomberry will peruse the project nonetheless.
“Yes, there is that risk, in which case it will be purely a commercial development for tourism. The license is purely for the gaming component,” Razon said.
“It will still be more than $1 billion eventually because we have residential towers, you have hotels, a beach resort, because it’s a beautiful beach property right within the city. It’s a unique property,” he said.
Razon said the company may seek a local partner to provide them the expert knowledge they need.
Bloomberry only last month further expanded its South Korean footprint after the purchase of another island and signed another agreement with a group of shareholders that owns the T.H.E. Hotel Vegas and Casino.
The company also said it has signed a real- estate sales agreement to purchase Silmi Island, a 21-hectare property within the Incheon Free Economic Zone.
No other details were disclosed on the deal that will be carried out by Solaire Korea Co. Ltd., the local Bloomberry unit. Silmi Island is adjacent to the 12.2-hectare Muui Island that Bloomberry aims to acquire in an earlier regulatory. The site is set for conversion from economic zone at present into a leisure and tourism complex with entertainment facilities.
VG Cabuag