MGM confirms it will spend $450m this year on MGM Osaka
MGM Resorts believes that its MGM Osaka casino resort in Japan will be a competitor on a profitability basis to Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, the top-earning casino resort in the world.
MGM confirmed it will spend $450m this year on its Japan project, aiming to make it a leading global destination.
As Japan’s first IR to include a casino, the $10bn project is attracting interest both inside the country and around the world and has the potential to boost domestic as well as regional tourism across Asia and generate strong returns for the resort’s principal developers.
The IR will be built on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka Bay, that is also the site of Expo 2025 Osaka, which is being held there next spring. The resort is scheduled to open around fall of 2030, and it is hoped it will be a driver of inbound visitors to the area looking to experience Japanese and, specifically, Kansai culture and the world’s latest entertainment complex.
Speaking at the JP Morgan Gaming, Lodging, Restaurant, and Leisure Management Access Forum, MGM CFO Jonathan Halkyard said: “We think it [MGM Osaka] is going to be the largest and most successful integrated resort globally since Marina Bay Sands. So, we’re very happy to put capital there. We’re allocating this year, probably $450m in equity investment to our Japan project, and that will grow next year and the year after.”
MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle added: “There’s a market, if it just manifests itself, with what’s going on today in Singapore. If we start with a $2bn cash flow business, we’re going to net about $800m given our stake and given our share. It’s a meaningful business.”
He went on to outline the geographic reach of Osaka. “If you put it into perspective, it’s 120 million people. We are 1.5 hours closer from Shanghai and Beijing than Macau,” Hornbuckle said. “The proximity, the scale, what’s happening in the pachinko business to this day in Japan is over $30bn. We’re pretty assured about. In Yumeshima, a quarter of a million people a week went through the last week of the expo. The infrastructure’s there. It works. I think the product we’re going to build is going to be exceptional, world-class, which is an overly used term, but it will be, given the things we do and what we’re known for. I’m very excited by what that potentially brings us. It’s opening is 2030, and we’re putting our money up front. That’s the way Japan works with the banks. By the end of 2028, which will go in a flash, we’ll be through that, and then I think the reward will be substantive. I truly believe that. I’m betting my career on it, literally.”
“In Las Vegas, we’re looking at steady growth regionally, the midterm is all about digital, and the long-term is Japan.”
Hornbuckle had earlier said: “Our vision is to bring MGM’s ‘wow’ DNA from Las Vegas to Osaka and build a resort that will be a source of great pride in the community. Nowhere is the future of tourism and hospitality more exciting than Japan, and Osaka is the perfect location for that future to begin. We couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to help enhance and grow Osaka’s reputation as a world-class destination and gateway for the world to the wonders and rich history of Japan.”
Speaking last year, Toyonori Takahashi, ORIX’s Group Kansai, MGM’s partner in the project, said: “This is Japan’s first IR resort and we believe it will attract many visitors and tourists to Osaka, both from the rest of Japan and from overseas. I believe projects like Yumeshima and Umekita contribute both to our company and to Kansai as a whole. I am confident to the success of Japan’s first integrated resort development.”
The hotel offering will include MGM Osaka, MGM Villas, and MUSUBI Hotel with 2,500 total guest rooms, along with a variety of dining and food & beverage offerings, retail space, spa, fitness center, banquet halls. There will be approximately 400,000 square feet of conference facilities, with capacity to accommodate more than 6,000 visitors. In addition, there will be approximately 330,000 square feet of exhibition space, including an Innovation Laboratory, along with the Yumeshima Theater with approximately 3,500 seats.
The main 27-story, 126-meter-high facility will be ‘reminiscent of the Bellagio’ in Las Vegas, offering two hotels with a combined 1,840 rooms. There will also be a four-storey section, housing MICE facilities and a third hotel offering 660 rooms over 13 floors.
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MGM confirms it will spend $450m this year on MGM Osaka MGM Resorts believes that its MGM Osaka casino resort in Japan will be a competitor on a profitability basis to Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, the top-earning casino resort in the world. MGM confirmed it will spend $450m this year on…
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