MGM Sets Date for Dubai Resort
Photo Credit: MGM CEO and President Bill Hornbuckle at the Skift Global Forum in New York on September 19. Skift
Skift Take
MGM has been trying to enter the UAE since 2006, but something has always gotten in the way. This time seems different.
MGM Resorts CEO and President Bill Hornbuckle said the company’s Dubai project will finally be ready in the third quarter of 2027. If the timeline holds, it will mark the end of a 20-year effort to establish a foothold in the UAE.
“That building [the MGM in Dubai] is due to complete third quarter of ’27. We are literally up on the fifth floor of the MGM Tower as we speak,” Hornbuckle told investors during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on April 30.
The development is known as “The Island” and the plan includes three MGM brands — Aria, MGM, and Bellagio — combined into a 1,400-room beachfront resort. Hornbuckle had previously told Skift that the project would also include an entertainment complex – a "sphere" with 300 seats.
The project was originally announced in 2017 by Dubai’s ruler, and has moved slowly. And MGM’s efforts to enter the UAE date back to 2006 when MGM announced a new partnership with Abu Dhabi govern
