Philippines: construction of Bloomberry’s QC casino resumed; opening postponed

Philippines-based Bloomberry Resorts Corporation announced that the construction of Solaire North in Quezon City as resumed although its opening has been delayed due to the quarantine.

"We are continuing with the construction of Solaire North in Quezon City which, given the delay due to the lockdown, should be completed by the end of 2022 or early 2023," Bloomberry Chairman Enrique K. Razon Jr. said during the firm’s virtual stockholders’ meeting.

"Construction has partially restarted and the period of lockdown can be reasonably added to the completion date," he added. "We strongly believe that the timing of Solaire North could well coincide with a full economic recovery."

While its operations have been severely affected by the lockdown, Razon noted that, "even during this crisis, we are still on the lookout for opportunities whose potential and valuation makes sense in this environment."

“Given the great uncertainty, we will exercise prudence and restraint in managing our balance sheet and finances, and when this crisis has been overcome, we look forward to being an even stronger company,” he said.

Razon disclosed that, “The record performance of the Company in 2019 will no longer reflect our short term future performance, until the pandemic is over… when this may happen, is simply a wild guess at this point.”

Solaire Resort & Casino in Parañaque shut down when the government declared an Enhanced Community Quarantine or lockdown that began in March 14 of this year.

“At this moment, we are still with a general quarantine, and the economy has been partially reopened to limited capacity and movement with restrictions,” said Razon.

Solaire just opened to very limited capacity last June 15, and he said “it is still early days to give any indication on how the business will perform. Our number one priority now is to ensure the safety and well-being of our guests and employees. We have invested heavily and have gone to extreme lengths to make Solaire and our guests as sanitized and safe as possible. We have taken every precaution and beyond with meticulous attention to the most minute detail to achieve this.”