Today marks a ‘preview period’ for the Okada Manila, the newest gaming and entertainment resort to be located in the Philippines. The public will be able to take part in offerings provided by the venue beginning today and the official grand opening will be scheduled sometime during the first quarter of next year.

A subsidiary of Universal Entertainment Inc., Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc, is the developer of Okada Manila, which cost $2.4 billion to create. The first phase of the project covered 22 hectares of land which is equal to just over 54 acres. The entire plot that the resort is located on stands at 44 hectares.

For today, celebrations will include fireworks as well as a light show and performances by Bamboo, Regine Velasquez-Alcasid and Lani Misalucha, top artists of the Philippines. Takahiro Usui is the Chief Operating Officer for Okada Manila who spoke to GGRAsia on the opening by stating that the Christmas preview concert marks the start of the preview period for Okada Manila that will continue until the grand launch is scheduled. According to the company’s website, “As we continue through our Preview Period, we will let you know when additional areas, such as the hotel, casino, and restaurants, will be open to the public.”

Usui stated that guests can expect more amenities at the facility as well as features to open to the public as the weeks go by leading up to the spectacular grand opening. The property will include a two wing hotel with 993 guest rooms. There will also be dining venues, shops and of course, a casino. The casino will include 500 gaming tables and a staggering 3,000 electronic gaming machines. During the preview period, a portion of the casino will be open but the hotel and restaurants will not.

The Okada Manila was originally going to be completed in March of last year and be known as Manila Bay Resorts. However, the casino regulator of the Philippines decided to approve a new timetable for completion in June which pushed the completion to the end of December 2016.

As the casino opens, it becomes the third resort style casino to operate in Entertainment City. This is a development zone created in the Philippines capital of Manila. This area will become a casino district and operate similarly to the district of Cotai in Macau.

This article’s headline has been updated to replace “soft launch” with “preview”.

In case you missed it, following is an article published on December 14, 2016

 

The Philippines’ largest integrated resort property, Okada Manila, will offer a preview beginning on December 21 with $2.4 billion invested so far in the anticipated $5 billion, 44-hactare (over 100 acre) project, which will open in phases. The Grand Opening is expected sometime in the first quarter of 2017, with March being the current target date.The ‘preview’ of Phase I will host a Christmas concert with performances by top-rated Filipino artists including Bamboo, Lani Misalucha, and Regine Velasquez. The concert is being presented free of charge and open to the public. Free shuttle service will be provided from the Mall of Asia for all who wish to experience the preview events.

Visitors can expect to witness a phenomenal pyrotechnics display in concert with a spectacular laser light show display that should be visible from as far away as Quezon City. The fireworks and light show will be the first of its kind to occur in Manila. On the ground, expect to see the largest dancing fountain in the Philippines at 37,464 sqm (over 400,000 sq ft), second in the world in scope and size only to the Dubai Fountain in Burj Khalifa lake – also created by WET Design architects of Sun Valley, California.

The Fountain, as it is simply called, is as expansive as 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools, making it larger than the WET Design fountain at Bellagio Las Vegas which holds 22 million gallons of water.

Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc. is the license holder and operator for the new iconic integrated resort complex in Pagcor’s Entertainment City in Paranaque. Okada Manila will be the third integrated resort to open in the special gambling zone following Bloomberry’s Solaire opening on March 16, 2013 and Melco Crown’s City of Dreams Manila which opened with a soft launch on December 14, 2014.

With the December 21 opening ‘preview’, Okada Manila, formerly known by the working name Manila Bay Resorts, will be in compliance with an agreement crafted by Pagcor after missing an earlier deadline of March 15 due to complications arising from a cap on foreign land ownership. That obstacle was overcome when Tiger Resorts teamed up with Antonio “Tonyboy” Cojuangco for the project in late July, after Kazuo Okada forfeited a PHP100 million (US$2.2 million) guarantee payment in May 2015 for missing the earlier deadline.

Okada Manila will feature two five-star luxury hotel wings with a combined 993 rooms. Each room either faces The Fountain or Manila Bay so there’s not a bad room in the house. The casino floor will span some 26,000 sqm (nearly 300,000 sq ft) and provide as many as 500 gaming tables and 3,000 electronic game machines. At full build out there will be over 20 food and beverage outlets featuring international cuisine from quick eats to fine dining.

Visitors can also expect to see a 90,000 sq ft night club and beach club entertainment complex with real sand indoors, an 8,409 square-meter retail promenade, and a world-class spa among other amenities for the Grand Opening in March.

This article has been updated to reflect clarify that the casino itself is not yet open.