Developers look north to casino win
FIVE of the world's biggest casino operators are jostling to win a deal to build a £250m Las Vegas-style casino resort complex near Manchester City's new football stadium.
They have teamed up with a raft of UK property developers to pitch for the 18-acre site. The bidders include London-based Quintain Estates & Developments, the company behind massive urban regenerations around the Dome and Wembley's new stadium.
At stake is a northern rival to mega-casinos planned at London's two top exhibition halls at Earls Court and Olympia, which sold only a month ago for £245m, and a host of regional venues following this month's £309m takeover of gaming group Wembley.
The Manchester bidding war has already sucked in Vegas casinos owner MGM Mirage, which saw its bid for Wembley trumped by a consortium involving Sun City founder Sol Kerzner, the legendary South African hotel and gambling magnate, according to reports in Property Week.
MGM has teamed up with AIMlisted Peel Holdings, a Manchester-based property developer. Kerzner has opted for another local specialist, Ask Developments, set up by the former head of UK construction giant Amec's property development arm, Ken Knott.
MGM has already struck a deal to operate casinos for new Earls Court and Olympia owners, Japanese bank Nomura and St James's Place Capital, the financial services arm majority owned by HBOS.
For Manchester, both Kerzner and MGM will have to first fend off bids from newcomers to the UK gaming scene. America's Caesars Entertainments has allied itself to Quintain.
Another South African operator is thought to be bidding with Allied London, the developer behind Manchester's massive new Spinningfields office scheme, anchored by major tenant Royal Bank of Scotland. Meanwhile, Las Vegas Sands has teamed up with Birmingham's Richardson Developments.
Insurance giant Prudential's headquarters at 3 Minster Court, the red, mock-Gothic building on High Holborn, could soon come on the market. The sale is part of a likely four-building package sale from Australian insurer Challenger Financial Services Group.
