Lotte Tour Development Co. Ltd is said to have approval to build the second largest casino hotel complex on Jeju Island off the coast of South Korea through affiliate Donghwa Investment and Development Co. Ltd. The Jeju Dream Tower project has been brewing for a few years and was once set to be comprised of two towers of 61 and 63 stories each, but the plans have been scaled down considerably. Analysts quoted on several Asian news outlets did not give a specific height limit for the new plan.

Original plans had China’s largest and most aggressive overseas real estate firm, Greenland Group of Shanghai, heavily involved with a planned $900 million investment. However the governor of Jeju expressed concerns about the size of the project along with Resorts World Jeju last year and planning was temporarily halted. Resorts World was later given permission to proceed. Under the current plan it appears that Donghwa has sold the land for the project to Greenland and have made a first payment toward construction. Notes are indicating that Lotte Tour will own the casino, hotel, and retail while Greenland will profit from home sales in one of the two towers.

Greenland was one of the partners with James Packer’s Crown Resorts that narrowly lost a bid to build a multi-billion dollar casino complex at Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane, Australia.

The Dream Tower project is expected to open in phases beginning in the second half of 2018. Resorts World Jeju was originally scheduled to open sometime in 2018 but that forecast appears to have been moved up to early 2017. Ground breaking ceremonies were held for the project on February 12th.

Reports indicate that The Lotte project will feature a hotel with 1,600 guestrooms and suites, non-gaming amenities and a casino with 400 slot machines and 200 gaming tables.