"The Macau government has tentatively agreed to grant land for the 'City of Dreams' resort, featuring an underwater casino hall with a capacity of 450 gaming tables and 3,000 slot machines, one of its developers, Melco International Development Ltd. said in a statement seen Monday.
The hall 'will be surrounded by water and marine life,' Melco Group Managing Director Lawrence Ho said in the statement.
The $1 billion project will also house deluxe service apartment blocks, 2,000 hotel rooms, a shopping mall and a 4,000-seat performance hall over about 5 million square feet of floor space.
The resort will be located on Macau's Cotai strip, which developers hope to fashion as Macau's answer to the Las Vegas Strip, the statement said. The complex is expected to begin construction in the second half of 2005 and open in mid-2008.
Melco, which is linked to Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho, is jointly building the casino resort with Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd., a media and gaming empire that is 36% owned by Australia's richest man, Kerry Packer."
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