Bloomberry to build second Solaire casino resort

Bloomberry Resorts Corporation, owner and operator of the Solaire Resort and Casino and Jeju Sun Hotel and Casino in South Korea, is planning to start construction of its Quezon City integrated resort next year with an eye to a 2022 opening.

In an interview following the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting, Bloomberry chairman Enrique Razon Jr. said that the new integrated resort would use the Solaire brand.

“This is part of our strategy to capture the base mass segment in the north,” he explained.

Local media reports suggest that work on the development – situated in the Vertis North area of Quezon City – could be underway by the middle of 2019.

Bloomberry subsidiary Sureste Properties, which operates Solaire, purchased the 15,676sqm site for $37.8m in 2015.

Razon added that while the new resort will have the same same total floor space for casino operations as the firm’s flagship $1.2bn Solaire Resort and Casino, it will be a high-rise development since the land area is much smaller.

While Quezon City is located located just 30km from Manila’s Entertainment City complex, Razon stated that he did not expect any cannibalisation of the company’s existing property.

“We expect the market to grow,” he said. “We foresee that tourism will continue to play a significant role in the growth of Philippine IRs. Growth will likewise be boosted by the rise in middle-class incomes and increasing connectivity across the region.”