Property bets follow casinos in Macau gold rush

The way Macau property prices are soaring while rows of new apartment blocks stand nearly empty, investors could be forgiven for thinking that the mushrooming casino business is providing the gas for a property bubble. The former Portuguese enclave on China's southern tip has drawn speculative flows from Shanghai, which is being officially cooled after an explosion of real estate investment, and Hong Kong, where rising interest rates are starting to bite. Macau developers can still sell sparkling high-rise blocks in just a couple of weeks, but buyers are taking a big risk. There is hardly any rental market -- only around a tenth of new apartments are lived in. more from yahoo:

How the New Venetian Resort in Macau will look like

The 10.6-million-square-foot, 3,000-room hotel and casino is being developed by Las Vegas Sands, and like the original, will feature replicas of Venice landmarks like the Doges Palace, the Rialto Bridge, and several famed palazzos. It will be roughly three times the size of the Vegas version. HKS principal Jeff Jensen, whose firm is designing the project along with Wilson and Company, says the complex will be, “like a Venetian on steroids.” The resort will include over 1,500 feet of retail-lined canal, which is three-times the length of the Vegas version. Its 500,000-square-feet of gaming is five times the area of the original, and the complex will also contain a 15,000-seat arena. Jensen says that his clients chose this tested theme instead of one of the modern designs that many Vegas developers are using. “We said, ‘why recreate the wheel?’" More:

TransGlobal Airways cargo airline based in China to infuse about $10 million in Philippine former Clark Air Base

TransGlobal Airways, a cargo airline based in China, will infuse about $10 million worth of investments in the next five years for its operations at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. TransGlobal had already signed a deal to mount China-Clark-China twice weekly flights. Trans Global is expected to start operations next month with a maiden flight between Clark and Zhunai, China which is part of the highly industrialized Zhenzen Economic Zone near Macao and Hong Kong. The firm will be the third cargo airline that would operate in Clark. The first is United Parcel Services, which has made the Clark Aviation Complex its Intra Asia hub and the Royal Cargo which flies once a week in Clark. Trans Global will have a minimum P10 million in the first year of operations, increasing this to P540 mil-lion or $10 million in the next year five years. The contract also stipulated that the air cargo firm will build its own hangar inside the aviation complex to complement operations in Clark. TransGlobal will use Boeing 737-200 cargo planes in transporting goods to several key destinations in China. more from BusinessWorld:

Cotai Strip megaproject in Macau ranks as the biggest construction undertaking in Asia

"Getting the timing right is a struggle, even for the most experienced of operators. Take Las Vegas Sands, the American gaming firm whose Cotai Strip megaproject in Macau ranks as the biggest construction undertaking in Asia since Hong Kong built its new airport in the 1990s. Last November, in the fine print of a filing with United States securities regulators, Las Vegas Sands said it expected to spend US$1.8 billion (HK$14 billion) - almost double its previous estimates - on the Venetian Macau, the anchor resort among the more than 20 casino hotels envisioned for the Cotai Strip. It also said the resort will open only in the first quarter of 2007, breaking the promise it made to the Macau government of a June 2006 completion. The first phase of the Cotai Strip project features the Venetian and six other resorts with more than 10,000 guest rooms, meeting and convention facilities, eight theaters able to seat more than 20,000 people and casinos that Las Vegas Sands says will be the most exciting Asia has ever seen." more: