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MACAO-The Las Vegas Sands has agreed to terms with 200 premium retailers for its malls on the Cotai Strip in Macao. The malls include the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel and the mall at the adjacent Four Seasons Hotel Macao.

"The number and quality of tenants as well as the pace at which we are leasing retail space in Macao is unprecedented," says William Weidner, president and chief operating officer of the Sands. "To put this in perspective, the retailers already lined up for the Venetian Macao represent more than three times the number of retailers currently doing business inside the Grand Canal Shoppes in Las Vegas." Weidner adds that his firm has more than three million sf of retail on the Cotai Strip, nearly one million sf in Las Vegas, and another one million feet at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

"The 200 retailers in the Grand Canal Shoppes combined with the leasing of the entire ground floor of the mall at the Four Seasons Hotel Macao, are equal to the number of shops and brands in Hong Kong's Pacific Place and Landmark Malls combined," states Stephen Weaver, senior vice president of Asian development for Venetian Macau Ltd. The shops at the Venetian Macao, which is currently being constructed, is being billed as the largest entertainment and shopping facility of its kind in Asia.