Genting Berhad, the Malaysian gambling and hospitality conglomerate, has announced it has received up to five bids – each with asking price of $1 billion and more – for its prime waterfront property in Miami. This could be the highest price ever paid for any development property in the United States.
Genting put up its 16.5-acre property situated along Biscayne Bay, Miami, in November 2022 and has since received multiple offers for it with the bidders ranging from international and domestic parties. The company purchased the property in 2011 for $236 million in hopes of securing a gaming license in Florida, but it could not.
The company’s failure was purportedly due to the hold of the Seminole Tribe on gambling in Florida preventing other players from entering the market. Genting had plans to build a Resorts World Miami casino complex that would feature four-hotel tower complex with 5,200 rooms and a 3.6-acre lagoon.
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With its efforts to acquire a gaming license proving futile, the property remained undeveloped and was the site for the Arts Miami and Context fairs. This was till it announced it had put up the property for sale.
Many bids were sent in for the property and none of the bids were less than $1 billion. Michael Fay – an executive at Avison Young Miami, the which has the listing – told Bloomberg in an interview: “If we get what we hope to achieve, this could be the highest price paid for any development site in the country.”
Reports say the company will direct the gains from the property sale towards securing a prized casino license in New York through its U.S. subsidiary. Genting is one of the many operators racing for one of the three available downstate gaming licenses in New York.
The company could also use the profit to fund its Asian operations and maybe try its hand again at breaking into the Macau market after it failed last year. Also, its Resorts World Catskills and Resorts World Las Vegas properties could benefit from the proceeds of the sale.