MB July | Hotel mystery

The Jumeirah Macau hotel was announced in 2008 as the first ultra luxury Macau hotel by Pansy Ho, representing Shun Tak Group, and the Executive Chairman of Jumeirah Group, a member of Dubai’s state-owned Dubai Holdings, which operates that city’s Burj Al Arab hotel. At the same time, it was announced that the hotel would be ready by 2013 – and, curiously, would not cater to gambling. 

Ten years later, the hotel does not exist and it is not known if it ever will. The site – to the left of the Macau Dome – remains unused but last year the Jumeirah Group still referred to Macau ownership as one of its bets in China. And on its website we can read that the ‘250-room Jumeirah Macau will offer spectacular views of the Macau Dome, the city’s major sports and cultural entertainment destination. The hotel will be strategically located amidst the tourism epicentre of Cotai.’ But Shun Tak seems to have dropped the project. 

What has happened is a mystery, compounded by the fact that none of the three parties involved – Shun Tak, the Jumeirah Group, and the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau – have been available to clarify the situation. 

Gerald Lawless and Pansy Ho

But it is undeniable that something happened: in the last Annual Report & Accounts known, relative to 2016, the company led by Pansy Ho makes no reference to the project, significantly contrasting with the information that the company had been divulging up to that point. 

Just compare this with what appears in the 2015 Shun Tak report: ‘The Group has made application for a land grant and is in discussion with the Macau SAR Government on its plan to develop hospitality facilities on the site.’ From the same source, we also learn that the hotel development on the Cotai site has ‘a proposed gross floor area of approximately 248,488m2’ and, being ‘under application . . . [is] . . . subject to the Macau SAR Government’s approval. The gross floor area of the project may be less than the area stated.’ 

In recent years, Shun Tak has failed to mention the name of Jumeirah Group, but in the 2010 Accounts document we will find a very specific reference: ‘Another ultra-luxurious hotel, the Jumeirah  Macau Hotel will be built in the Cotai tourism epicentre upon government approval.’ Shun Tak also states that ‘the Group is in discussion with the Macau SAR Government on its plan to develop an ultra-luxurious hotel on the site, to be managed  by the Jumeirah Group, a renowned luxury hotel management company and a member of
Dubai Holdings.’  

And if we go back a year we know the opening date of the hotel. In fact, 2009 was the last time the Macau company insisted on opening in 2013. 

It should be added that the first time that Shun Tak refers to investment in Cotai is in January, 2006. In the report for 2005 we learn that ‘the Group announced plans to develop jointly with Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, S.A. a site in Cotai, subject to Macau SAR Government approval, in place of the originally announced site in Taipa, for hospitality and entertainment uses.’ 

The latter information introduces some spice to the process. In 2006, the company said the original site had been discarded ‘because of environmental constraints that would have hampered development.’ The company managed by Stanley Ho’s daughter said the location of the Cotai development, originally planned for the border of Cotai, ‘was moved to the Strip after it decided to arrange a land swap through the Macau government…’
It is not by chance that the 2005 document reveals that a ‘total developable gross floor area of the [Cotai] site will be the same as the previous site, approximately 2.1 million square feet.’ 

Macau Business consulted the official bulletins to identify some land transfer agreement (or land swap) to Shun Tak but did not find any document that would make the business definitive. And this may be an explanation for the fact that the company founded by Stanley Ho has nothing to say about it – to our magazine or to its shareholders. By the way, in 2009, in a Macau Daily Times interview, Pansy Ho described the government process of granting land in Cotai as: “Everything is unclear, nobody notices. There are no rules that guide us.” 

Still, Shun Tak bet strong on this project. If initially, as it turned out, the company headed by Pansy Ho had only 80 per cent of the investment, in May 2008 it announced the ‘acquisition of the remaining 20% interest in a site in Taipa Macau (Cotai) for hotel and serviced apartments development by the acquisition of the entire interest in Prominent Princess International Limited [from STDM at a consideration of $238 million].’ 

Apparently, a bet so strong that today you can still read on the Shun Tak website that ‘discussion with the Macau SAR Government is underway to develop another ultra-luxury hotel in the Cotai tourism epicentre to be managed by the Jumeirah Group’ (Sister state-investment firm Dubai World has a 10 per cent stake in Las Vegas casino developer MGM Mirage, which operates the MGM Grand Macau – in association with Pansy Ho). 

The Gaming Bureau (DICJ) informed Macau Business that it knew nothing about the hotel, which is not surprising since the hotel was not gazetted to host any gaming areas. The office of the Secretary for Public Works also told this magazine that it was unaware of the project and advised us to contact Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO). 

An MGTO source explained to Macau Business that a licence request “does not exist at the present” for the Jumeirah hotel, adding that with the Public Works department 31 construction licence requests are currently being processed. 


Shifting sands 

It is already known that the promoters spoke of a super luxury hotel to be built
in an area of 185,800 square metres in the central area of the Cotai landfills,
with 250 rooms. 

In 2008, Pansy Ho was not prepared to reveal information on the budget, scope and means of funding of the project, but did reveal it would have a “hotel tower and a separate tower with serviced apartment hotel units for a combined gross floor area of about 2 million square feet.” Without a casino. 

“Macau has a rich and unique heritage of Asian and European influences, and the Jumeirah Macau Hotel will certainly be a perfect addition to our international portfolio of hotels and resorts, in line with our promise to stay different,”  trumpeted Gerald Lawless, Executive Chairman of Jumeirah, in 2008.  

*with Alex Lee