A projection of Genting Group's original plan for its Miami casino and resort; it recently revealed details for a scaled down complex.
The Genting Group made a considerable splash last fall when it unveiled an extraordinary, $3.8 billion casino and 5,200-room resort for Miami.
Though it announced the resort with fanfare and promised thousands of new jobs in its construction and operation, Genting quickly ran in to problems with the gambling component of its business, and legislators were unmoved by the economic promises of the project. So now, humbled but determined, Genting has returned with a new, more modest proposal for Miami’s lawmakers.
According to a Miami Herald piece, some of Genting’s new, downwardly-revised plans include:
- A luxury hotel with less than 500 rooms, or roughly one-tenth of the original proposal.
- Two condominium towers.
- One hundred thousand square feet devoted to restaurants and boutiques; that’s about the size of a small department store, and a far cry from the 50 restaurants and bars, 60 luxury shops, convention center, ballroom space and a yacht marine the initial proposal called for.
There are still some curious dimensions to Genting’s new proposal, the strangest of all being that Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez have still not set eyes on the new plans. Genting still hopes to begin construction next May, though, with the demolition of the current buildings on the bayfront land it has reserved for the resort (coincidentally, those buildings are the Miami Herald offices).
Regardless of the project’s current size, though, Jodi Macken, a principal at Macken Realty, said the resort will not only grow in time, but it will also fit in perfectly with the downtown Miami area, which is the most vibrant, hip spot in all of Miami right now.
“It’s just on fire,” Macken said of the area, adding that she hardly gets off the phone with international buyers and young professionals without them asking about properties either in Miami’s downtown and Brickell Avenue. So though the resort seems modest now, it will grow with the urban sprawl, vital nightlife and spectacular ocean views of Miami’s downtown.
“That area will continue to grow,” Macken said.