The proposed $550-million integrated resort and casino in Boracay Island of Macau-based Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. and local partner Leisure and Resorts World Corp. remains on track to open by 2021 despite the implementation of a six-month closure of the island for rehabilitation.
LRWC vice president for legal affairs Katrina Nepomuceno said during the annual stockholders’ meeting Friday afternoon the planned project was not delayed by the ongoing of Boracay.
“The plan has not been delayed by closure of the island,” Nepomuceno said. She said the company was able conduct needed tests and surveys before the closure of the island in April.
Nepomuceno said while the island remained closed, LRWC was finalizing the master plan for the project to ensure that it would be environmentally compliant.
She said the group planned to resume the development of the project once the island was re-opened later this year.
The company acquired 23 hectares of property in Barangay Manoc-Manoc in 2017 for the planned resort and casino project.
“Basically, right now… we’ve been working on the initial plans for the resort development. So continuously we’ve been discussing with Galaxy Entertainment Group, with the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] and other government agencies,” she said.
Construction is expected to take two years.
LRWC is pushing through with planned resort and casino despite previous pronouncements made by President Rodrigo Duterte that he was against the building of a casino in Boracay,
“Where am I getting the confidence? Because the President has also said he wants to maintain Boracay as a prime tourist destination aside from the fact that he also talked about agrarian reform,” Nepomuceno said.
“The fact remains there is a property and our partner has a license,” she said.
LRWC earlier said the integrated resort would redefine the standards of luxury resorts in the country with bulk of its gross floor area allocated for premium hotel rooms and other amenities like wellness centers, bars, lounges and fine dining restaurants.
The casino and gaming area’s maximum footprint will not exceed 7.5 percent of the total floor area of the resort, based on the resort’s conceptual design.