GGRAsia – Macau’s The 13 on track for 1Q2017 opening

Macau’s The 13 on track for 1Q2017 opening

Dec 12, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The opening of The 13 hotel, located on the border between the Cotai and Coloane districts in Macau, is on track to open in “the first quarter of 2017”, according to a statement from the top executives of the project’s promoter.

“The 13 is nearing completion and now undergoing the process of various government inspections and we expect to open in the first quarter of 2017,” said Stephen Hung and Peter Lee Coker Jr, co-chairmen of The 13 Holdings Ltd in a statement included in the company’s interim report, filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday.

The report added that the firm had already hired more than 300 staff for its hotel operations by the end of last September.

The opening date of the property (pictured in a file photo) had already been pushed back to “early 2017”, according to a company press release issued in September. Hong Kong-listed The 13 Holdings had stated in its annual results for the financial year ended March 31 – a report released in June – that the project was “expected to be opened in the fourth quarter of 2016”.

In earlier announcements, the firm – previously known as Louis XIII Holdings Ltd – had said the scheme was scheduled to open in late summer 2016.

The company has in the past mentioned plans for a casino at the property. But The 13 Holdings has made no mention in its more recent releases of gaming facilities at the venue.

Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong Vai Tac, stated once again last month that there are no legal restrictions to the operation of casinos in Coloane, an area with low population density that has been referred to by some local legislators as the “green lung” of the city. He added that any applications that might be filed by any of Macau’s six licensed casino operators – the competent parties regarding gaming operations in the city – in order to build or operate a casino in Coloane would be evaluated based on existing rules and the government’s plans for that area.

The land grant for the plot where The 13 hotel is being built does not mentioned a casino. But, according to Macau’s rules, a casino operator could still request government authorisation to set up a casino there.

GGRAsia asked the city’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, whether it had received any request for a new casino to be established inside The 13 hotel. The gaming bureau said in an email on November 28: “As of now, we have not yet received from any one of the gaming concessionaires a request to open a new casino in The 13 hotel location.”

The 13 hotel property aims to position itself in the ultra-luxury segment, its promoter has said. The firm had previously stated that the average construction cost per room was more than US$7 million – an aggregate construction spend of more than US$1.4 billion for all the rooms in the property. It is described as an all-villa hotel with 200 accommodation units.