In this regular feature in IAG to celebrate 19 years covering the Asian gaming and leisure industry, we look back at our cover story from exactly 10 years ago, “Weaving a destination”, to rediscover what was making the news in January 2015!
In the January 2015 edition of Inside Asian Gaming, we took a look at Manila’s newest integrated resort project – City of Dreams Manila – and why it represented another important milestone in what is today a much more developed and renowned Entertainment City precinct.
City of Dreams Manila, a joint venture project between local real estate firm Belle Corp and Macau’s Melco Crown Entertainment (now Melco Resorts), was the third IR to open in Entertainment City following Resorts World Manila (now Newport World Resorts) and Solaire.
The property did, however, present some challenges given that Melco had initially planned a smaller investment into the partnership. As IAG noted at the time, that all changed when regulator PAGCOR revised its formula to determine the number of gaming tables and machines permitted in licensed resorts based on hotel room count and room area, giving credit for lodging quality and quantity. The change saw the project’s allotment jump from 242 tables and a combined 1,450 slot machines and electronic table games to 374 tables, 1,695 slots and 1,695 e-tables.
In response, the joint venture opted to increase its combined investment to US$1.3 billion and rebrand as City of Dreams Manila, with Melco taking over operations.
“Quite simply, City of Dreams brings nearly a decade of Macau gaming know-how to a market that needs more international operators to set up shop in order to raise the profile of Philippines as a gaming destination,” said Union Gaming’s Grant Govertsen at the time. “That said, it isn’t clear that it will have an overnight impact. It’s important to remember that building a VIP business takes time and a lot of elbow grease. Mass market is not a slam dunk either, as other properties – especially Resorts World Manila – have a many year head start on capturing what is a fairly significant pool of local customers.”
Melco faced other challenges, too. By the time the Macau-based company took over the project, the main building structure was already in place and almost certainly not a design Melco would have chosen had it enjoyed a say from day one.
“Being a real estate developer, we don’t think like an integrated resort developer does,” explained then EVP and Chief Financial Officer for Belle Corp, Manuel Gana.
As anyone who has since visited City of Dreams Manila would know, the gold-sheathed structure features a two-story base with six 10-story towers clustered in pairs along its periphery, plus a dome called the Fortune Egg that originally housed nightclubs – features that set it apart from Solaire which focused on a theater instead. It was also home to the first Nobu restaurant in Asia and just the third globally.
While opinions have long been split on how the property compares to its rivals from a design perspective, a PAGCOR representative told IAG at the time that the regulator had found the result “pleasantly surprising” given the challenge. “How they could turn that structure into something that relates to the Melco Crown brand is impressive,” he said.
More importantly, it represented another stepping stone in Manila’s quest to become a world-class gaming tourism destination in a city that has since welcomed Okada Manila and, in 2025, Entertainment City’s fifth IR at Westside.
“After Resorts World Manila and Solaire, City of Dreams brings a third far superior gaming bricks-and-mortar experience relative to the government-owned and operated PAGCOR casinos located in the Metro Manila area,” said Macomber International President, Dean Macomber, in 2015. “Perhaps less obviously, it brings a short-term burst in generic credibility for the Philippine gaming market in general and, in the specific, to the two remaining Manila Bay projects not yet opened. The sustainability of this credibility infusion will be determined by the success of City of Dreams Manila.”
City of Dreams Manila celebrated its 10th anniversary (since soft opening) on 14 December 2024.
