Manila: Next Up for Nobu Hotels

Nobu Hotel Las Vegas

Last year the first-ever Nobu Hotel made a splash in Las Vegas when it opened at Caesars Palace. A collaboration between Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro, Meir Teper, Trevor Horwell and architect David Rockwell, the hotel has 181 guest rooms and the world’s largest Nobu restaurant, which was the first to offer teppanyaki in the United States.

Since then, the rumor mill has been churning about expansion plans for the group. Would the next Nobu Hotel be Riyadh? London? Miami Beach? (HotelChatter reports that the brand will be taking over the Eden Roc Hotel in late 2014.) Or elsewhere?

Just this week we learned that Nobu’s first hotel in Asia will be located inside the City of Dreams Manila, a $1.3-billion casino, hotel and entertainment complex operated by Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. The main target market will be wealthy Chinese customers. According to Reuters, a recent press conference brought together Robert De Niro, "Nobu" Matsuhisa, and Melco Crown’s director, who said, “This is a bet on the Philippines and it is a bet on China.’ After all, the Chinese are the highest spending gamblers in the world. For more information, visit www.nobuhotels.com