After working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the two casino resorts slated for Singapore announced last month that significant milestones had been reached in the construction process.

At Marina Bay Sands, the $5 billion resort owned by Las Vegas Sands, the three 55-story hotel towers were topped off. The towers will offer more than 2,500 rooms and suites when completed.

“We are certainly excited to have reached the top floor of the hotel towers and celebrate another milestone in the development of this iconic resort, and come one step closer to opening the doors and showing it off to the rest of the world,” said Sheldon G. Adelson, LVS chairman and CEO.

Adelson later admitted, however, that the opening of the property will be delayed until the first quarter of 2010.

“We can’t control the flow of sand to make concrete, the availability of steel or the availability of labor,” he said at a news conference in Singapore.

Following the completion of the towers will be the addition of the two-acre “SkyPark,” which will include three swimming pools, several restaurants and bars, landscaped gardens and expansive views of the Singapore skyline.

The Singapore project was one of the few construction projects that LV Sands continued last winter after the crash of its stock price and an investment by Adelson of hundreds of millions of dollars into the company. LV Sands halted all construction on Macau’s Cotai Strip and postponed the non-gaming elements of the Sands Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, which opened earlier in May.

Across the city from Marina Bay Sands, Genting’s Resorts World Sentosa is also sprinting toward the finish line. The company announced last month that it also expects a first-quarter opening, probably around March.

The $4.5 billion project contains six hotels with around 1,800 rooms, the world’s largest oceanarium, a water park and maritime museum, and Asia’s first Universal Studio theme park to be built over the next two years on 121 acres of Sentosa Island, south of the city’s center.

The company has also adjusted the number of visitors it expects in the first year from 15 million to 12 million, as well as the expected rate of return from revenue, down to between 12 percent and 13 percent from 15 percent.

“There have been some revisions to the revenue numbers,” Resorts World spokeswoman Krist Boo said. “What we think will decrease is spending per visitor.”

Michael Chin, Genting’s executive vice president of projects, said the project will open with about 60 percent of its features completed. Singapore had originally pressed the developers to open fully completed, but have recently backed off that demand for both LV Sands and Genting.

By GGB Staff

Staff writers for Global Gaming Business magazine. Las Vegas, Nevada.