Vertex Entertainment and Resort Corp, owned by the second richest man in the Philippines, according to Forbes, is planning to open two new casinos in Manilla. The casinos are part of a bigger project, a huge real estate scheme that is planned to be built. 

Philippines and South Korean companies to partner:

Manuel Villar Jr, the owner, announced the project, calling it Villar City. The city will be placed in Metro Manila, and it will be located across 3.500 hectares (8.649 acres) of land. 

Villar won’t be alone in this project – at least one of the casinos will be built in cooperation with a partner from South Korea. According to the source, the deal is already completed, and the project will be conducted in collaboration with Dowinn Group, a famous VIP Clubs operator from South Korea.

There are plenty of reasons why the Philippines company wanted to partner with a South Korean one. One of the most important reasons lies in the impact the South Korean tourists had on the Philippines. They’re among the countries with the highest number of tourists visiting the Philippines this year, as the Department of Tourism released.

According to Villar, this project will see more than US$1 billion invested in it. There will also be a huge Vista Mall Global South shopping project, where the first casino will be placed. It will be located across 80 hectares of land at Las Piñas, the southwest part of the National Capital Region. 

Another casino, which will be located at Las Piñas as well, will be the larger one, but other details are still unknown. 

An ambitious project:

Villar City will, as planned, consist of the central business district, university zone, an exciting theme park, and two casinos, with 15 communities including Taguig, Las Pinas, Paranaque, Muntinlupa, Bacoor, Dasmarinas, Imus, San Pedro, General Mariano Alvarez, Silang, General Trias, Tanza, Trece Martires, Carmona, and Tagaytay. The 10-kilometer-long Villar Avenue will connect various parts of the new city.

Villar commented: “This is going to be a work of a lifetime – even beyond my lifetime – because of its sheer size. I won’t be able to see it through to its full completion, but it would be a proud moment for all of us here now to say that we are the pioneers of Villar City.”

He added: “We will open the Brittany Hotel here, hopefully by December this year. We will also build a golf course nearby, a church, a coliseum where local and foreign artists can perform concerts, as well as a casino. And that’s just one portion of Villar City. We have a lot more ambitious plans in the pipeline that will benefit the Filipino people.”

Villar is the second largest entrepreneur in the country, just after the Sy siblings and ahead of Enrique Razon, both of whom own various casino businesses in the country.