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After Las Vegas Sands (LVS) CEO Sheldon Adelson spoke of lobbying the Singapore government for more land last month, a site at the south of the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Tower One has been singled out for possible expansion of its hotel, convention and exhibition space.
Located along Bayfront Avenue and bordered by the East Coast Parkway (ECP) and Sheares Link, the land parcel is not included on the reserve list, which means it cannot go through the public tender process.
George Tanasijevich, Chief Executive of MBS, identified the site during the LVS investor conference in Las Vegas, noting that demand for MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) events at MBS has grown so much that it can outperform even the Sands Expo in Las Vegas beginning next year.
“We’re finding it difficult to take on all the exhibition business that’s coming our way. There are certain points in time when we can’t accommodate dinners of a certain size because our ballroom is booked,” Tanasijevich said.
“This land parcel would present great opportunities to expand the number of hotel rooms, add additional exhibition and ballroom space to respond to increasing demands in that part of the business.”
With a booking capacity of 50 trade shows annually, MBS has booked 44 trade shows and 523 meetings, incentives and conferences (MICs) in 2011, compared with 28 trade shows and 335 MICs last year.
So far, MBS has already pre-booked 42 trade shows and 78 MICs for next year.
However, Tanasijevich noted that the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) masterplan for the land parcel is still unfolding.
“We see great potential to expand MBS, but nothing has been approved yet, and we’re internally still at the exploratory stage,” he said.
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