Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Las Vegas Sands, said he wants to build a $20 billion “mini Las Vegas strip” in Spain.
To open a new $5.5 billion entertainment facility in Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Adelson told media outlets that the casino company is eyeing Spain as its next foreign game destination.
Adelson said the company is planning a “$20 billion project” in Madrid or Barcelona. He said Las Vegas Sands is currently in talks with local officials.
“We are seriously considering doing the so-called ‘Strip’ which is essentially small Las Vegas,” Adelson quoted on TheStreet.com . “We are looking forward to doing that in Europe and are focused on Spain.”
Adelson said the Spanish project could have 20,000 hotel rooms, convention and meeting spaces, and retail stores. He plans to meet with contractors and has formed a team of architects and builders to build several resorts at the same time.
“Euro-Vegas has been talked about for years by various gaming stakeholders without any movement so far,” Bill Lerner, principal at Union Gaming Group, told investors. “Las Vegas Sands is by far the most reliable and capable of driving such a project forward.”
Lerner said Las Vegas Sands will need quick approval of the Spanish government’s land concessions and construction plans.
Adelson said the project in Spain would create 180,000 jobs. 스포츠토토
The company operates The Venetian and Palazzo on the Strip, but has focused a lot of attention on Asia over the past two years while the Las Vegas market recovers from recession.
Adelson also told reporters in Singapore that Las Vegas Sands wants additional land to expand Marina Bay Sands, which opened in April.
He said the company would bid for any government land at auction. He said interest in the meeting and convention business was much stronger than the company had expected.
Marina Bay Sands has more than 1 million square feet of conference space and 2,650 hotel rooms. Company officials said the additional land could be used to expand the property’s hotel business as well as the convention market.
Las Vegas Sands operates three hotel casinos in Macao, which accounted for more than half of its $2.02 billion in sales during the fourth quarter. The company resumed construction last year on 6,400 hotel rooms spread across four projects on Cotai Strip in Macao. The development is expected to begin later this year or early 2012.
The Singapore development was responsible for 27% of the company’s quarterly revenue, and Adelson said the model, which incorporates gaming and hotels, retail, convention, dining out and other entertainment, could be transplanted into other markets.
“We’re taking this very seriously, we’re pushing very aggressively,” Adelson told The Associated Press about Spain. “There’s no reason why we can’t do it.”