Quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Mr Ho said that the project would cost a further us$ 1.7 billion. It will include 2,000 hotel rooms, 18,580 sqm of retail space and entertainment offerings.
Mr Ho admitted that Macao Studio City won’t be open by 2013 as stated in the land concession contract, but added “We wouldn’t have done this without the Macau government’s blessing.” The new tentative deadline to open the property is the first half of 2015. Meanwhile, analysts were bullish about the deal.
“This is meaningful. The significance is that, beforehand, a lot of analysts didn’t anticipate that Melco had something in the pipeline. So now it has changed the entire supply outlook,” said Gabriel Chan, analyst at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. Mr Chan added that this could also mean further delays for Wynn Macau, MGM China and SJM Holdings in getting government approval to break ground in Cotai.