Manila casino build likely ready only 2024: Suntrust

Nov 25, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck  

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A firm involved in the creation of the Westside City Project (pictured in an artist’s rendering) which includes a casino, says it has agreed with the firm doing the construction, to push back the completion date on the infrastructure housing the gaming facility, “to no later than March 31, 2024″.

In August, the project’s coordinator, Philippines-listed Suntrust Home Developers Inc, had said the casino at Westside City was scheduled to start operating in the year 2023.

Now it said in a Thursday filing, it had agreed on Wednesday with the contractor, Megawide Construction Corp, that completion of the “basement substructure, superstructure, architectural builder’s works and finishes” for the part including the casino, can be ready by the end of the first quarter, 2024, to “afford the parties some flexibility”.

The filing did not clarify why flexibility was required on the completion timetable.

Suntrust Home Developers is 51-percent indirectly owned by Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group Holdings Ltd.

The construction of the “basement, podium and tower” of the five-star hotel and casino at the Westside City Project, also known as the “main hotel casino”, was scheduled to be completed within about 910 calendar days – i.e., two-and-a-half years – from the start date of the construction agreement. That was clinched in November 2020, according to a disclosure filed by Suncity Group Holdings to the Hong Kong bourse at that time.

The US$1-billion Westside City Project was flagged as a one of the “main growth drivers” of Suncity Group Holdings’ business, said the latter’s 2021 interim report filed in September. That document affirmed operation of the “main hotel casino” of the Westside City was due to start in 2023.

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