Marina Bay Sands has cleared a major hurdle on its expansion path after Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) gave the integrated resort operator the green light to develop a fourth hotel tower.
As reported by The Straits Times, URA data released on Friday lists the MBS expansion project among commercial projects to have received development approval as of the end of the December 2023 quarter.
The data confirms MBS can push ahead with development of its fourth tower on an empty plot located alongside its three existing towers, while also revealing that the project will include a hotel with 587 rooms across 153,100 square meters of hotel space, with an additional 12,185 square meters of retail space.
When MBS first announced in 2019 plans to develop a fourth hotel tower it had flagged the addition of around 1,000 new hotel rooms, however a recent upgrade of the property’s existing towers has focused on the addition of new suite products, with the revamp of Towers 1 and 2 taking the number of suites from 137 to 422.
Patrick Dumont, the President and COO of MBS parent firm Las Vegas Sands, said during the company’s 4Q23 earnings call last week that he was hopeful of reaching a final agreement with the Singapore government on details of the expansion project before the end of 3Q24.
“We’ve been in very close discussions with the government over many months,” Dumont said. “There are a lot of moving parts here, a lot of things we need to satisfy because this is a project of national significance, so we want to make sure everyone is comfortable with it and we get all the proper approvals.
“We are hoping in the next quarter or two that we’ll get everything done. We’ve been making good progress, we’ve been visiting Singapore, so we’re hoping we get all the green lights we need and can get going soon.”
MBS has previously said its expansion project would incorporate a “rooftop attraction” including a sky pool and signature restaurant, MICE facilities comprising meeting rooms, function rooms and exhibition halls plus a state-of-the-art live entertainment arena with a seating capacity of at least 15,000 people.
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