Mohegans, Paramount Pictures to partner in South Korea
Mohegan — While battling competition close to home, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, Mohegan Sun’s corporate parent, also is focused on the resort casino project it’s developing in South Korea, announcing a “strategic partnership” with Paramount Pictures Corp., the iconic film company, which has agreed to brand a theme park at the resort.
MGE executives revealed the news last Thursday in Korea and during a conference call here with investors. They provided few details about what the theme park will entail.
The Inspire Integrated Entertainment Resort’s $1.6 billion first phase had been scheduled to open in 2021 following a hoped-for groundbreaking this fall. Now, a revised timetable calls for groundbreaking in the spring and an opening in 2022. The initial phase is to include three hotel towers providing more than 1,200 rooms; dining, retail and entertainment options; a 15,000-seat arena; a foreigners-only casino offering 150 table games and 700 slots/electronic games; a water park; and convention space.
In October, MGE announced a partnership with Live Nation Entertainment to book talent at the Inspire Super Arena. Live Nation and Mohegan Sun have long teamed to bring entertainment to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.
The Paramount Pictures-branded theme park is part of the Inspire project’s second phase, which is scheduled to open in 2025.
During Thursday’s conference call, Mario Kontomerkos, MGE’s president and chief executive officer, said the theme park will be expected to generate “very significant traffic” at the Inspire resort, which is being developed on land the Incheon International Airport Corp. owns near Seoul. Kontomerkos said MGE could eventually share in the theme park’s ownership.
MGE so far has invested $300 million in Project Inspire, executives said during the call.
In MGE’s fourth fiscal quarter, the period from July 1 to Sept. 30, 2018, the company posted overall net revenues of $347.2 million, a 4.1 percent decrease over the same three months a year ago. Gaming revenues of $291.1 million were down 5.2 percent while nongaming revenues of $85 million were up 0.5 percent.
At Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, net revenues of $275.2 million, down 3.2 percent, were attributed to “softer gaming revenues, higher health care expenses and higher overall utility costs in the quarter.” Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., experienced an 8 percent decline in net revenues.
During the quarter, MGM Springfield, a nearly $1 billion resort casino, opened in Springfield, Mass., providing new competition for Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino. A small gaming facility in Tiverton, R.I., also opened during the quarter.
MGE executives said the impact of MGM Springfield during the quarter was slightly less than expected.
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