Construction on Sun International’s R4-billion Time Square casino and hotel development in Menlyn Maine, Tshwane, is fully on track, with the casino due to open on time in April 2017.

This will be followed by the 8,000-seat Arena in September 2017 and the hotel complex in March 2018. Gaming equipment will start moving onto the site in February.

Time Square – which will be the second largest casino in South Africa (after GrandWest) with 2,000 slot machines and 60 tables – represents the biggest development in the hospitality, gaming and leisure industry since the construction of Sun International’s GrandWest Casino in Cape Town, in 2000.

Sun International’s Michael Farr, Group General Manager of Brand and Communications says: “The complex is now taking shape, with its distinguishing roof now part of the Menlyn skyline.

“About 10,000 direct and indirect jobs will have been created during the construction and the initial fit-out and start-up phase. The development will also generate considerable revenue for both provincial and national government by way of taxes and gaming levies. It is anticipated that around R1.7-billion in gaming taxes and VAT will be generated in the first five years of operation at Menlyn Maine and the total estimated revenue to Government from the project over a five year period is estimated at around R2.7-billion.”

Time Square will also offer a new concept in hospitality in that it will offer a range of hotel star accommodation in a single building: 3-star accommodation with 96 rooms, 4-star accommodation with 94 rooms and 5-star accommodation with 48 rooms and suites.

Key statistics

• It took 50,000 truckloads to remove the 482,650m3 of excavated soil removed during the bulk earthworks and super structure construction phases. This is roughly equivalent to the volume of 193 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
• The massive casino roof spans 85 metres at its widest point, and covers over 10,000m2. The weight of the steel used in the roof structure of the casino, hotel, globe bar, arena and dummy globe equals 834 tons.
• During the superstructure construction, an average of 300m3 of concrete was cast every day, with a truckload every 12 minutes. On one particular day in July 2016, a South African record was set for the longest continuous pour of concrete – 1,550m3 over a period of 18 hours poured from a total of 260 cement truckloads.
• Once the wet works are complete, the complex will have used a total volume of 106,983m3 of concrete, enough to cover approximately 125% of the surface of the Kimberley Big Hole to a depth of 0.5m. 169,641m2 of internal and external plaster for the complex is enough to cover 254 tennis courts.
• Laid out top-to-toe, the 7.5-million bricks being used in construction would cover more than the distance between Johannesburg and Cape Town.  The complex, when complete, will also include 7,678m2 of carpeting and 6,270m2 of tiling.
• 18,062m2 of glass façades will be used when the complex is complete – equivalent to more than two rugby fields.

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