Mega-resort with one of the world’s highest infinity pools is about to get even bigger — an $8B makeover will add a new tower

Singapore’s eye-catching Marina Bay Sands hotel and resort is undergoing an $8 billion expansion.

A trip to Singapore isn’t complete without taking a look at Marina Bay Sands. The massive resort, made up of three 650-foot-tall skyscrapers and connected by a boat-like skybridge, is a symbol of the city-state’s modernism and prosperity. Such a pricey expansion to such a national icon is, predictably, a hot-button topic. 

Marina Bay Sands is set to receive a fourth tower, plus a 15,000-seat arena. The makeover broke ground this month under the looming specter of public scrutiny.

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The resort’s original architect, Moshe Safdie, designed the new tower.

“The (Urban Redevelopment) Authority repeatedly said, ‘This is our icon; our people of Singapore love this, and we cannot do anything that’s going to compromise it,” Safdie told CNN.

The 87-year-old Israeli architect told the outlet that his goal was to design an edifice that was complimentary to the originals, while bearing its own identity. The current iteration of Marina Bay Sands, owned by the US casino and resort company Las Vegas Sands, attracted 38 million visitors and the equivalent of $1.7 billion in business spending last year, according to CNN. 

Safdie, whose firm is headquartered in Massachusetts, said connecting the fourth tower to the other three was hardly considered. Instead, the 55-story extension will be set apart on an adjacent plot. He described the new tower as the dot of an exclamation point.

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“The buildings look related,” Safdie told the outlet. “They’re in the same family.”

The new tower will comprise of 570 suites, as well as luxury retail and gaming facilities. The facade, twisting at a 45-degree angle, tops off with a 76,000-square-foot “Skyloop,” featuring the resort’s famous infinity-edge pools, an observatory, restaurants and lush rooftop gardens. 

The fourth tower will share the original resort’s panoramic views of the Marina Bay and Singapore Strait.

A massive event venue, designed by the team behind the Las Vegas Sphere, will sit neatly in between the two structures. The building will span approximately 200,000 square feet of conference and exhibition space, with a 15,000-seat sports and entertainment arena at its core.

The new development aims to capture more tourism revenue from so-called “Mice” travelers, according to CNBC, who flock to the city for meetings and conferences, as well as leisure travelers trekking through Asia.  

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Online commenters reacted strongly to the development’s recent groundbreaking, with some Redditors comparing the fourth tower design to a lurking neighbor of a “huge dehumidifier.”

Safdie told CNN that all the new development needs is time, saying that, before long, “people will feel it’s always been there.”