As reported in September, the Selena World Resort under development in the Primorye Integrated Entertainment Zone (PIEZ) near Vladivostok, Russia will be comprised of three separate phases of development, each with their own casinos, hotels, recreational, and entertainment amenities. This week Diamond Fortune Holdings Prim presented their plans to the Primorsky Territory Administration, who unanimously approved the concepts, according to a report in bettingbusiness.ru.
Site preparations began last summer and an official ground breaking for the first phase is expected sometime this month, according to statements from a company director in February. The venues by name and order of completion are listed as Sun Casino & Resort, Golden Gate, and Moon Gate. The award winning Steelman Partners of Las Vegas has been chosen as the design firm for casinos and hospitality.
The Sun Casino & Resort complex will be built on land lot #11 between the Tigre de Cristal resort area and what is sometimes known as Turtle Lake, or Lake Cherepashye. The two building development will include a 900 key hotel and a casino with 376 gaming tables and 1,800 machines. A large promenade is planned adjacent to the lake shore. Sun Casino & Resort is scheduled to open by the end of 2017.
The Golden Gate complex, which along with Moon Gate will come under construction in 2018 according to current plans, will be comprised of three main buildings, one servicing a ski slope to be built that will be 350 meters long (about 1,050 feet). Another hotel with 576 rooms and a casino featuring 200 table games and 2,100 machines will also be part of the Golden Gate development.
The Moon Gate Complex will feature four and five star hotels with a total of 460 guestrooms and suites along with a luxury casino offering 110 tables and 1,100 slot machines. The buildings will be connected by an atrium and traditional Chinese gardens featuring sculpted plantings, symbolic fountains, and art exhibits.
The total gaming offering at Selena World resort will come to 5,000 gaming machines and 686 tables. However, gaming is not the only focus of the development. Diamond Fortune marketing director Grzegorz Ash noted, “In developing the concept of our resorts, we focus not only on the game in the casino, but also on diverse family vacation,” Ash said. “The target audience of our complexes [is 50/50] Russian and foreign tourists, and we will follow their needs.”
All three of the complexes will offer additional amenities such as restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, cinemas, health spas and retail outlets.
With an expected final price tag of US$914 million and more than 300,000 square meters (3,300,173 sq ft) of finished development on Diamond Fortune’s 9 land lots of 25 under development, Selena World Resort will be the largest of the offerings in the PIEZ.
A Lawrence Ho company has 32 hectares under their control and opened Tigre de Cristal late last year.
NagaCorp has 23 Hectares and broke ground on their portion of their Primorsky Entertainment Resort City (Seaside Resort) last year.
Royal Time Group of Russia has 16 hectares adjacent to NagaCorp and are expected to open their Phoenix Resort Casino Primorye in 2017.
There are still about 60 hectares unaccounted for over at least 4 other land lots to at least 3 other possible developers. All of the four currently known developments will have at least one casino in operation by the end of 2018 and the entire PIEZ is scheduled to be completed and fully operational by 2022.