Las Vegas Weekly

April 27, 2010 · 3:04 PM

Photos: Sheldon Adelson bets $5.5 billion on stunning Marina Bay Sands

By Robin Leach

A rendition of the Marina Bay Sands Singapore.

Photo: Marina Bay Sands

It was 3:18 p.m. today Singapore time when Las Vegas hotel tycoon Sheldon Adelson officially cut the red ribbon to open his $5.5 billion luxury Marina Bay Sands project there. Today was the opening of Phase 1 with nearly 1,000 hotel rooms, 300 retail stores, a convention center holding 45,000 delegates, several restaurants and, of course, the casino itself with 1,000 tables and 1,400 slot machines.

Feng Shui masters were consulted for the exact time and date for the opening, and hotel executives agreed to the time of 3:18 p.m. Marina Bay Sands is the most expensive standalone and integrated resort property ever built and is second only to MGM’s mammoth CityCenter here in Las Vegas in cost.

It is an architectural and engineering marvel that might become the ninth wonder of the world. Sheldon insisted on a 200,00-square-foot Art Science Museum with nearly $300 million I artwork and exhibits. It also has a retractable ceiling cover that provides a waterfall through the roof from collected nighttime rainwater. When it’s not raining at night, the roof opens for skyline laser shows.

Phase 2, with another spectacular gala opening, is scheduled for June 23, with the remainder of the 2,560 suites opening and a snazzy branch of the Los Angeles nightclub Avalon with Bruce Willis and Dan Aykroyd as business partners.

Star chefs Wolfgang Puck opened his CUT steakhouse there today along with Las Vegas celebrity chefs Daniel Boulud of the Wynn and Guy Savoy of Caesars Palace (CUT has an outlets here in the Palazzo). Disney’s The Lion King, here at Mandalay Bay, opens in Singapore in October.

Sheldon’s dream building features three 55-story hotel towers connected by the world’s largest garden sky terrace on the roof named the Sands Sky Park. The tropical oasis is large enough to park five A380 jumbo jets and has the world’s longest elevated swimming pool with a 475-foot vanishing edge that holds 380,000 gallons of water and is 1,000 feet above ground.

We’ll have the red ribbon ceremony photos here tomorrow but wanted to showcase the extraordinary venture here today. Wall Street bankers are predicting that this one Singapore property will not only pay for itself within five years, but also revenues within 12 months will exceed all of Sheldon’s gaming empire in the U.S.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

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Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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