Integrated Resort at Marina Bay : The victory lap is over, it’s time to start work Fresh from its victory in the race for the Singapore Integrated Resort at Marina Bay, Las Vegas Sands Corporation (LSVC) has assembled its team “to get to work as soon as possible to turn the vision into reality”, said President and Chief Operating Officer William Weidner. “We did our victory lap, popped a couple of bottoms of Dom Perignon but now it’s time to start work,” he said at a press conference called to introduce the team that will oversee the Singapore project. Bradley Stone, Executive Vice President, LSVC and Matthew Pryor, the company’s Vice President of Construction in Macau, will be responsible for overseeing the development planning process in Singapore. The company has already met with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Urban Redevelopment Authority to address aspects of the design. “Their comments were extremely well thought out and there are certain areas we can improve on,” said Mr Weidner, who said LSVC was keen to break ground as soon as possible to begin building The Marina Bay at Sands. Mr Weidner also thanked CDL Chairman, Mr Kwek Leng Beng, for his support. “He believed in us from the beginning and has given us extraordinary support.” He said they were “talking of continuing the relationship and how he can help us with the construction”. Mr Weidner, who said it was good to be in Singapore as a “Singaporean” and not as a visitor, said LSVC won the bid “because the Singapore government recognize us as people who do things and build things from the ground up”. “We also won because of our position in the MICE business which is very important to us and to Singapore. We want to reposition Singapore as a world MICE capital and our MICE team in Macau will be working on tripling or quadrupling the current MICE visitor level to Singapore.” He also cited LSVC’s footprint in Asia which would help in penetrating the MICE, tour and travel market as well as casino sales in Asia. The Marina Bay at Sands will have 1.2m square feet of flexible MICE space under one roof. LSVC said all its resources, from retailing to food & beverage to hospitality to gaming to training, would be brought to bear on the Singapore Integrated Resort. It said it was committed to filling over 75% of jobs created with Singaporeans, including key management positions. “We will be reskilling the older workforce, which is very important to Singapore,” said Mr Weidner. He added he was confident of meeting that goal despite the labour shortage in Singapore “because this will be an interesting building to work in and people will want to work in it”. In Macau, when LSVC advertised 4,000 jobs, it had 60,000 applications. In Las Vegas, when it wanted to fill 4,500 jobs, it had 100,000 applications. Mr Weidner estimated that it would take five to eight years for LSVC to recoup its investment in Singapore. “We are in this for the long run,” he said. Later, in an exclusive interview with P@SSPORT, Mr Weidner said the Singapore victory was particularly significant to LSVC because “it represents a validation of our business model and professional ability to deliver a true Integrated Resort”. “I was playing golf the other day when an old friend in Las Vegas called me and said, hey, you guys are the underdog (in Singapore). You are up against the two biggest names, MGM and Harrah’s. I asked him, when will we stop being the underdog? “When we won in Macau, people said we were lucky. When we won here, people said we were the underdog. I guess this means we are underdog no more.”