By Ben Blaschke
SJM Holdings Executive Director and CEO Ambrose So says its HK$36 billion integrated resort in Cotai, Grand Lisboa Palace, remains on time and on budget despite the suspicious fire that broke out on the construction site last week.
Speaking at SJM’s celebration of the 68th Anniversary of the Founding of The People’s Republic of China at Macau Tower on Tuesday, Dr So said the company was still “estimating the impact” of the fire after 88 construction workers were evacuated on 24 September.
“We’re still looking at the second half of 2018, we have not revised the date,” he said. “The budget will not run over because of this, this is all covered by insurance.”
Asked about the extent of the damage, Dr So said, “Fortunately the fire broke out in an area that is not affecting the critical part of the whole project.
“Of course there is certain damage to equipment that we need to replace. Luckily those are covered by insurance but still we have to wait until the arrival of the new equipment.
“We are estimating the impact and we hope this will not affect too much our progress.”
The fire is currently under investigation by the Judiciary Police following a similar incident in March.
Dr So also addressed new smoking guidelines announced by the Macau government last week, which require smoking lounges to be at least three meters from gaming tables and ETGs. The guidelines also require smoking lounges to include a “negative pressure” system and automated, single entrance sliding doors.
In regards to the new specifications, Dr So said that extra work “will need to be done because the guidelines set out by the government as to the speed of the wind and the partition of the smoke and so on, there is some renovation work to be done in order to improve our smoking lounges to meet the standard.”
