Sihanoukville should be a booming beach resort comparable to coastal cities in Vietnam. Instead, it’s better known for its abandoned towers, scam compounds, and shady casinos. Here is how to fix it.

Sihanoukville is a coastal city in Cambodia that is home to the largest port in the country. It also has some of the nicest municipal beaches in Southeast Asia.

Ochheuteal Beach

Despite this advantage of having a beautiful coastal setting, the government went all in on trying to turn Sihanoukville into the Macau of Southeast Asia. With the casinos came the money launderers and scam operators, and now the tourists that Cambodia covet the most are staying away.

The city is littered with abandoned hotel and apartment towers, and the few tourists that are here make it feel like a set for a near-future dystopian film.

Things in Sihanoukville are dire, but it’s a city with potential. Some of the streets have been repaved, and there are wide footpaths with new trees being planted.

I revisited Sihanoukville in December 2024 to file a construction report. It occurred to me while walking around that there isn’t much difference between Sihanoukville and the coastal cities of Vietnam, yet the coastal cities of Vietnam are having a tourism boom.

In this article, I will outline what are the main problems that need to be fixed, and how Cambodia should look at what Vietnam’s coastal cities are doing that attracts so many tourists.

How to fix Sihanoukville

Close the scam compounds

This article will cover urban planning changes that are needed to improve Sihanoukville. However, these changes will amount to nothing without addressing the scam compounds.

Cambodia has become famous for online scammers running their operations from guarded compounds in cities around the country. There are scam compounds in Sihanoukville, and some of them aren’t even trying to hide the fact that there is something dodgy going on behind the barricaded walls. Everyone knows where they are and what they do. The New York Times recently published an article about fraudsters operating in Sihanoukville:

“This underworld peeks out in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, home to a global clearinghouse for money launderers. It can be glimpsed, too, in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, a notorious refuge for fraudsters. Scammers ply their trade from call centers, operating in fortified compounds or on the upper floors of unfinished high-rises.” (see archived article.)

The NY Times even featured a photo of the scam compound that everyone knows about in Otres Beach.

In China, a film called “No More Bets” featured the scam centres in Southeast Asia, which spooked Chinese travellers from visiting Cambodia. Instead of addressing the problem, the Cambodian government banned the movie.

The government are offering incentives to breathe new life into the ghost towers, but the city’s reputation needs to be restored by “eradicating drug trafficking, kidnapping, online gambling and gangsters”.

This problem has since been acknowledged. The Prime Minister has set up a commission​ to combat online scams and has talked about deploying armed forces and law enforcement officers.

This is a good start, but you have to wonder if Cambodia is serious about ending organised cyberscams when they could send in armed forces today and end it.

Close down casinos

While we are in the mood for closing things down, start closing down some casinos. There were up to 150 casinos at the end of 2018. A local news site that keeps track of the casinos says there are now around 80 casinos (here is their Google Map of the casinos).

I would close them all down, but even if Sihanoukville remains as a gambling entertainment city, I think we can all agree that Sihanoukville doesn’t need 80 casinos.

Reclaim and renovate the beach walks

Sihanoukville has an obsession with attracting tourists by turning the city into a casino destination, but it already has what people travel to Southeast Asia for: beaches.

Sihanoukville has several city beaches that offer different beach experiences, from long stretches of open beach to smaller beaches in picturesque bays.

The city has started to landscape some of the beach walks, but it also has some of the worst beach developments in Southeast Asia.

Victory Beach

One of the worst examples of building too close to the beach that I have seen anywhere is at Victory Beach. Two failed projects sit on the beach side of the road.

This beach was already a narrow stretch of sand, so putting giant concrete blocks next to it has ruined its appeal.

One of the projects has three apartment towers sitting on top of a gigantic podium.

This building on the wrong side of the beach road reminded me of a resort that was dismantled on the beach side of the road in Nha Trang. The resort wasn’t mall-sized, but it is a good precedent for other cities to follow.

Independence Beach

There is an old park at Independence Beach.

This park would scrub up nicely with a new walking path and some landscaping.

Ochheuteal Beach (Serendipity Beach)

Ochheuteal Beach (Serendipity Beach) used to have informal beach bars. I saw them being demolished on New Year’s Day in 2018, and they have now been replaced by a row of seaside restaurants.

I like the beach promenade next to the main road, though I’m not a fan of the wavy path. Just make it a straight path so walkers and cyclists can navigate it without swerving into each other.

Otres Beach

Otres Beach was a popular backpacker beach before it was cleaned up. I went in December 2017 when I heard that the beach bungalows were going to be demolished.

I have mixed feelings about the changes here. On the one hand, it was a laid-back beach destination and an experience that is getting harder to find. On the other hand, I agree that there shouldn’t be buildings on the beach, whether that is a mall or a bungalow. The beach road has also been upgraded from a dirt track to a modern road.

Otres Beach Road in 2017

Otres Beach has now been cleared of buildings, and local people were having picnics under the trees.

The main problem of Otres is the casinos and scam compounds that are built inland of the beach. They should have built a new city grid here instead.

Turn future development areas into gridded streets with small buildings

The problem with the resort and apartment complexes is that they turn the streets around them into a boring and sterile place. The land reserved for future mega developments should be gridded out into small streets and sold off to individual investors. A good example of this is in Danang.

One thing Danang did right was to grid out a series of streets near My Khe Beach. The An Thuong area in My Khe has been transformed over the last decade into a vibrant beach neighbourhood with hundreds of small hotels, restaurants, and private homes.

The gridded streets near My Khe Beach are a thriving walkable neighbourhood

This was unusual for Vietnam, as there has been a mania for giving control of large new urban areas to a single developer. If the developer goes broke (which has happened in Vietnam), then the entire development is abandoned. With this model, which has been used in Danang, if a single developer goes broke, the rest of the neighbourhood carries on.

There are a few empty blocks of land near the beaches of Sihanoukville that should also follow this Danang model. There is a big block of land opposite Independence Beach that would be better off if it were gridded out and filled with small businesses, locally-owned hotels, and guesthouses.

Empty land at Independence Beach.

There are still undeveloped blocks of land along Ochheuteal Beach that would be better off as small blocks than a monolithic tower block. These may be reserved for developers, but the government has set a precedent of taking land from developers on some island projects, so why not in Sihanoukville as well?

Future Ochheuteal Beach development

Gridding out these areas and letting local people build here would allow for Cambodians to share in the prosperity of the city.

Sihanoukville is missing out on the Southeast Asia tourism boom

I was in Sihanoukville in December 2024, and at that point, it was clear that Southeast Asia tourism had nearly recovered to pre-pandemic levels. I was in Vietnam the previous month, and tourism was booming. I wondered how many tourists were coming to Sihanoukville, so I looked up the airport’s Wiki page.

Airlines and destinations of Sihanouk International Airport (April 2025)

There is a lone flight from KL (because AirAsia fly almost anywhere there is an airport in Southeast Asia), but no flights from China.

In comparison, I looked up Cam Ranh Airport, which serves Nha Trang. The difference between Vietnam tourism and Cambodian tourism can be summed up with these two airports.

Airlines and destinations of Cam Ranh International Airport (April 2025)

I went back to Nha Trang after my Sihanoukville trip, and it felt like it was even busier than before. It turns out that Vietnam had experienced the largest number of international arrivals in a single quarter in history.

During this record-breaking first quarter of 2025, I visited Phan Thiet, Nha Trang, and Danang. All of these coastal cities were bustling with tourists as I had never seen before.

What the coastal cities of Vietnam are experiencing is what Sihanoukville should be experiencing as well. Sihanoukville is similar to Nha Trang in that it’s an architecturally unremarkable city with a nice seafront.

When it comes to beaches, Sihanoukville has nicer beach sand than Nha Trang and calmer waters to swim in than Danang. Most coastal cities in the world can only look on in envy at the beaches on the doorstep of Sihanoukville City, yet somehow this fact eluded city planners, who thought that they needed casinos to attract tourists.

If you visit Nha Trang, you will see that Chinese tourists just want a beach holiday in a tropical environment where they can eat cheap seafood and drink beer.

In addition to the lack of flights, the other thing I noticed about Sihanoukville was the lack of budget hotels.

I searched on a hotel booking site for hotels under $20 in Sihanoukville.

Hotel map of Sihanoukville.

To make a comparison, I searched for hotels under $20 in Danang for the same period.

Hotel map of Danang.

Who is Sihanoukville for if your average Cambodian can’t afford to stay there?

While Sihanoukville went all in on casino hotel complexes and apartment towers, there is a dearth of small-budget to mid-range hotels.

A beach city for Cambodians first

Sihanoukville has had a sordid reputation for most of Cambodia’s modern era. From being a hideout for Western sexpats and drug addicts, a backpacker party town, and now a hub for international fraud gangs.

In the times I have visited Sihanoukville, it has never felt like a beach resort town for Cambodians. Even now, the government is looking to lure “high-end tourism” to the country, and this can be seen with the latest development in Sihanoukville at Peninsula Bay.

The Peninsula Bay project is being built in the city centre, which will feature a JW Marriott, a luxury mall, and a casino (of course).

Peninsula Bay, Sihanoukville

I walked along the seafront where Peninsula Bay is being built, and there is a night market with people sitting around on little plastic seats. I went by here later on, and it was the busiest place along the seafront.

The night market opposite Peninsula Bay (before it got busy).

Peninsula Bay, the casinos, and all the luxury hotels of Sihanoukville offer no place for the average Cambodian to hang out. I would like to see Sihanoukville become a Cambodian beach city, rather than a playground for foreigners behaving badly.

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An update on one of the biggest mixed-use developments under construction in Cambodia, prominent abandoned projects, and the redevelopment of Ochheuteal and Otres Beach.

Sihanoukville is the largest coastal city in Cambodia and home to its main port. It has great beaches and a train to Phnom Penh. Despite this beautiful natural setting, the city has become better known for its ghost towers and casino-related crime.

I was in Sihanoukville early in 2022 – weeks after the country had reopened – and I wasn’t planning on returning so soon. In 2024 Royal Railway of Cambodia bought some second-hand train sets from Japan to replace the old train carriages in use. This was enough to bring me back for another visit.

I took the train from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville in December 2024, and these new carriages are a dramatic improvement over the old ones. After getting the train, I stayed in Sihanoukville to check in on some of the major projects and see how tourism is faring after the pandemic.

This trip report includes an update on one of the biggest mixed-use developments under construction in Cambodia, prominent abandoned projects, and the redevelopment of Ochheuteal and Otres Beach.

Peninsula Bay

Sihanoukville is still struggling to complete the abandoned towers around the city, so I wasn’t expecting to see any new mega projects. I was shocked to see this new project rising in the city centre.

Peninsula Bay rising in the city centre

It was a confusing sight to see because I couldn’t work out where the available land was that it was being built on. There were no empty blocks of this size when I was last here.

After checking in at my hotel, I went for a walk on Ochheuteal Beach. The full scale of this project can be seen from the beach. This project is Peninsula Bay.

Peninsula Bay viewed from Ochheuteal Beach

The project includes a five-star hotel (JW Marriott), a casino, a shopping mall, office buildings, and serviced apartments.

The peninsula on which this project is being built has almost been completely excavated. A little shack and some trees were all that remained when I visited. This was the only clue as to what the peninsula used to look like.

I have a hard drive in storage of photos that include my first visit to Sihanoukville. I need to check this for old photos of this area.

In contrast to the lifeless construction sites around the city, this construction site was a hive of activity.

A future office tower of Peninsula Bay

Apartments under construction at Peninsula Bay.

Read more about Peninsula Bay.

Other projects

Many of the projects that have been abandoned don’t have a name or website, so it’s hard to track down what has happened to them.

The most prominent project with a name is Prince Tian Xi Wan by Prince Group. This is a hotel and mall complex on Victory Beach, and here is what it’s supposed to look like.

The Prince Tian Xi Wan has stalled. Prince Group have been accused of money laundering, which they have denied.

Prince Tian Xi Wan project

Next to the Prince project is The Bund

The Bund (in Sihanoukville)

The Bund project has also stalled.

The Bund project in Sihanoukville

A residential project that is looking like it will be finished is Star Bay.

Star Bay

There is a marketing office for sales, and units are appearing on booking sites for short-term rentals.

Ochheuteal Beach

Ochheuteal Beach (AKA Serendipity Beach) is the main city beach of Sihanoukville. The beach was famous for its beach bars and its laid-back atmosphere. The shacks were demolished and replaced by new restaurants by a beachfront walkway.

They missed an opportunity to make a wider and more attractive beachfront promenade.

Ochheuteal beach walk

The walkway is much better further up, where there are no buildings on the beach. There is a random Doi Chaang Caffe on the beach walk, which I frequented on my last visit. It remains the best coffee in the Ochheuteal Beach area.

Doi Chaang Caffe

The roads that run parallel to the beach should be the premier shopping and entertainment area of Sihanoukville. These streets are lined with the concrete shells of unfinished buildings, giving it a rundown feel. There are no cafes on these streets, just boring tourist shops and casinos.

23 Tola Road

There are some big blocks of land on the beach road that remain undeveloped. Hopefully, they remain undeveloped until the city gets over its casino fixation.

At least the hotels are not being built on the beach side of the road.

There is a river at the far end of Ochheuteal Beach that flows into the sea. A new water treatment plant has been built there, but black water is still flowing into the sea.

Polluted water

Otres Beach

Otres Beach is the next beach up from Ochheuteal Beach, and it was once a popular backpacker beach with beach bars and cheap guesthouses. The Otres of old is a distant memory as most of what used to be there is gone.

There are still some low-rise hotels on the beachfront, but everything on the beach side of the road is gone.

Some shacks have since popped up along the road, restoring the natural order of Cambodian commerce.

There is a massive new urban area inland of Otres Beach, and it still looks like a construction site.

One area is known as Chinatown, and the buildings on Google Maps are referred to by number. Some of these apartments are scam compounds that are fortified with guards and barbed wire.

There are lots of casino hotels in this area, but there are few tourists around.

Golden Sun Sky Casino and Hotel

The area might become more lively when they build more apartments that people would want to live in.

Apartments under construction in Otres Beach

A new ferry pier has been built at Otres Beach, though it wasn’t operational.

Like Ochheuteal Beach, there is nowhere to hang out on Otres Beach. A bright spot in the redevelopment of Otres is the opening of Brown Coffee in the corner of Otres Beach. Brown Coffee is a popular cafe chain that started in Phnom Penh, and they now have branches in Siem Reap and Kampot.

Brown Coffee, Otres Beach

Sihanoukville will need more cafes and fewer casinos if it wants to rehabilitate its reputation. I will be posting another article soon about how to fix Sihanoukville.

Peninsula Bay is a mixed-use development in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The project is being built on the peninsula in the city centre between Sokha and Ochheuteal Beach. The formerly rocky and tree-covered peninsula has been levelled to make room for the development.

The project covers approximately 160,000sqm and it includes a five-star hotel, casino, shopping mall, office buildings, and serviced apartments.

Entertainment facilities include an aquarium, water theme park, KTV lounges, and wellness centres.

The complex includes a bar street and sea-front shops for restaurants and cafes.

Peninsula Bay map

View map of Peninsula Bay.

Peninsula Bay links and resources

Developers: Luxury Business Group (LBG), MAD, and Peninsula Bay Investment Co.
Official website: peninsulabay-resorts.com
Architect: A Design Concept (HK).

Peninsula Bay images

[Peninsula Bay watershow feature]

[Peninsula Bay sea view.]

[Peninsula Bay waterpark (concept by icm-corp.com.]

[Peninsula Bay hotel tower]

[Peninsula Bay office tower]

[Peninsula Bay serviced apartments]

[Peninsula Bay shopping]

News archive

2025

Local authorities back $527M 5-star hotel and commercial centre project in Preah Sihanouk – [03/03/25]

Development of Sihanoukville’s massive resort on track, high attention on wastewater management – [06/01/25]
“The development of a massive integrated entertainment resort in Preah Sihanouk province is progressing well; meanwhile, the provincial administration advises special attention to wastewater management for sustainable business.”

2024

Peninsula Bay Project aims to boost luxury and retail tourism in Cambodia – [15/11/24]
“A mixed-use development, The Peninsula Bay Project, is being developed with the aim of putting Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on the map as Southeast Asia’s luxury tourism and retail destination.”

Sihanoukville has emerged from a construction frenzy that was unprecedented for a city this size in Southeast Asia. Cambodia opened the flood gates for Chinese investors to build casinos and hotels in Sihanoukville, with very little government oversight.

In the latter half of the 2010s, Sihanoukville had the feeling of a Wild West boomtown (it is even called Westport in Chinese). New casino operators set up shop (perhaps with dreams of becoming the next Stanley Ho), and the associated crime and violence followed.

The construction boom of Sihanoukville peaked in 2019, and then a confluence of events brought the party to an end. Sihanoukville is now littered with unfinished buildings while the city nurses this construction boom hangover.

Looking back with a few years of hindsight, Sihanoukville’s fortunes began to change on 22 June 2019 after the construction site collapse that killed 28 workers and injured 26 others. The building was found to be unlicensed, and more illegal construction sites were uncovered since the accident.

In August 2019 Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that online gambling would be banned and no new licences would be issued. Many of the casinos in Sihanoukville were bases for online gaming. The ban become official on 1 January 2020, and by the end of the month, the government reported that 200,000 Chinese nationals had left Cambodia following online gambling ban. Then Covid-19 happened.

The rise and fall of the Sihanoukville construction boom can be visualised by looking at the annual passenger movements at Sihanoukville Airport.

A look at the archived Wiki page of Sihanoukville Airport from 2019 shows how reliant Sihanoukville became on Chinese tourism. Here is the list of every city in China with a flight to Sihanoukville:

Beijing–Capital, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Guiyang, Haikou, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Jieyang, Kunming, Linyi, Macau, Nanchang, Nanjing, Nanning, Quanzhou, Sanya, Shanghai–Pudong, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Taiyuan, Tianjin, Wenzhou, Wuhan, Xi’an, Xiamen, Xishuangbanna, Yichang, Zhanjiang.

That’s 29 mainland cities, plus Hong Kong and Macau. With such a busy international airport you would think that there would be other flights from all over Asia. There were only three other international cities: Bangkok (Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi), Ho Chi Minh City, and Kuala Lumpur.

Flights from 29 mainland China cities is a staggering amount of flights, even by capital city standards. Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport had 51 mainland city flights in 2019, and Singapore Changi had 34 mainland city flights. The only other city to have more in 2019 was Nha Trang, with flights from 30 mainland Chinese cities (I discovered this while compiling the 2019 Vietnam aviation report). This doesn’t show frequencies (for example some cities might be irregular charter flights), so who had the most flights might vary. It is possible though that Sihanoukville would have overtaken Nha Trang with Chinese flights if Covid-19 didn’t happen.

I spent four days in Sihanoukville in January 2022. I walked all over the place, taking notes of empty blocks that might house future developments, and trying to work out names of abandoned projects.

My first task was to catalogue and map all known projects, which are listed on the Future Sihanoukville page.

Sihanoukville Construction Map

This map is via the Future Sihanoukville page, and it lists all known projects in Sihanoukville. The map can be used to find projects mentioned in this report.

[Map of Sihanoukville construction projects.]

Dead Casinos

When I visited Sihanoukville in 2018 there were apparently 55 casinos in the city. By 2019 that number went up to over 100. I was going to make a map to try and count them, but another website has already made a Sihanoukville casino map. This map shows 135 casinos.

View map on Google (map via sihanoukville-cambodia.com.).]

There are some pins in the sea as well, which are floating casinos. Here is one of the floating casinos I saw on the boat trip from Sihanoukville to Koh Rong.

Most of these casinos are small operations, so it is not Vegas or Macau where most casinos are huge.

There are too many dead casinos to chronicle, so here is a sample of closed casinos that I saw.

[A dead casino being gutted out.]

[Ling Hang Casino Hotel.]

[The God Of Wealth Casino – Where is your God now?]

[Ocean City Casino.]

[Studio City.]

[New Continent Entertainment Center.]

Abandoned Buildings

Normally with these construction updates, it is easy to identify the major projects happening around the city. Here, not so much. There are dozens of abandoned buildings in high profile locations that have no indication of what the project is. Construction sites usually at a minimum have the project name in English and a website on the front signage. The construction forums that I read are also having a hard time identifying project names, and even Google hasn’t been able to label project names.

This section is a photo gallery of unidentified unfinished projects around Sihanoukville.

[Triangular building at Lions Roundabout.]

[23 Tola St, near Lions Roundabout.]

[Top of Ochheuteal Street 500.]

[On road between Lions Roundabout and Sokha Beach]

[New Crown International Hotel.]

There is a cluster of unfinished apartments on the hill behind Independence Beach.

Construction has gone ahead before any roads were built, so there are still these one-lane dirt tracks in this new residential area.

I plan my research trips to be in the dry season, as I would not want to be trudging around here in the rainy season.

Otres Beach New Urban Area and “The China Project”

Development has made its way up the coast to Otres Beach, where there are a few different projects that form a new urban area. Otres Beach was a popular backpacker area, but the beach huts have been cleared and a new road has been paved along the entire Otres coastline.

The section closest to Otres Beach is well underway, though the signature building of the Golden Sun Sky Casino & Hotel has stalled.

Behind the Golden Sun Sky Casino & Hotel is land reserved for the KB Central development.

These signs fade quickly under the scorching Cambodian sun, so there were not many details left.

I take photos of whatever I can, and try and find matching images online.

Here is what this block of land will eventually look like.

Next to the land reserved for KB Central is the KB Hotel & Casino, which opened in 2019. This is part owned by a Chinese national who was sentenced to 10 years in a Chinese prison in 2013 for masterminding an illicit international gambling ring.

Next to the Golden Sun Sky Casino & Hotel project is a row of completed buildings that is referred to as The China Project.

[China Town and Golden Sun Sky Casino & Hotel (viewed from Otres Beach Road).]

The China Project is an oddly generic name considering that the majority of projects in Sihanoukville are Chinese. This area is also referred to as China Town (including on Google Maps), though perhaps it should be pronounced as The China Project.

[China Town buildings (on the right).]

The buildings appear to be occupied as there is washing hanging from the balconies. I went to have a look but I couldn’t get in. The entrances have been sealed off and there are guards at each gate. I didn’t know anything about this place but it immediately felt suspicious that rows of low-cost housing units would be a gated community.

[China Town gated compound.]

I found a Chinese pulled noodle shop here, so I stopped for lunch. The restaurant had also been walled off so that people from the public road couldn’t walk through to the sealed area.

At the back of the row of apartments, a new wall has been installed to seal off the apartments completely. At this point, a security guard emerged from the shadows to tell me that I am not allowed to take photos.

According to this report, foreign nationals have been held here to carry out various illegal activities. Since that report broke, fourteen Chinese were arrested in connection with illegal activities and 41 foreigners were freed, but the building is still allowed to be sealed off as if it was its own sovereign state.

Under Construction

This section includes some of the high profile projects that are currently under construction in Sihanoukville.

Prince Golden Bay Complex

Address: Sokha Beach, Sihanoukville.

Prince Golden Bay Complex comprises of Prince Golden Bay (3 apartment towers and hotel) and Prince Huan Yu Mall. The mall opened in October 2020, while the apartment towers continue to be built.

Star Bay

Address: 2 Thnou St, Preah Sihanouk.

Opposite the Prince Golden Bay Complex is the Star Bay project.

The Seagate Suite

Address: Phum Bei Krong Preah Sihanouk.

159-metre/43-floor apartment tower at Victory Beach. The building has topped out at 159 metres, making it the tallest building in Sihanoukville (as of January 2022).

[The Bund and The Seagate Suite (right).]

[The Bund and The Seagate Suite (right).]

Xin Du Hui International Grand Hotel

Address: Poulowai Street 300, Preah Sihanouk.

There were some workers on site here, and apart from a faded sign there was no other information about this.

[Xin Du Hui International Grand Hotel.]

Novotel Holiday Palace

Address: 2 Thnou Street, Independence Beach, Sihanoukville.

The Novotel Holiday Palace was meant to open in 2020, but it is still under construction. In 2019 the project was called out for building too close to the beach.

Stalled

These are the major projects that I could identify that have stalled.

Prince Tian Xi Wan

Address: Victory Beach, Sihanoukville.

Prince Tian Xi Wan is a shopping mall and apartment complex at Victory Beach. As in right on the beach.

Prince Tian Xi Wan (right) and The Bund on Victory Beach.]

Work has not progressed past the half-finished podium.

In all of my travels, I don’t recall any place ever daring to place a shopping complex with apartment towers this close to the waterline.

A model of the project can be seen at the Prince Tian Xi Wan showroom in Phnom Penh.

The Bund

Address: Mlop Chrey Beach, Sihanoukville.

Next to Prince Tian Xi Wan is The Bund project. I couldn’t find any pictures online for it, so I have used a faded image from the abandoned construction site.

Oriental Pearl Hotel

Address: 23 Tola St, Sihanoukville.

There are a bunch of dead projects between the Lions Roundabout and Serendipity Beach, and Oriental Pearl Hotel is one of the few that has any advertising left that says what it is. These projects are using such generic casino names that it is hard to find any more information about them.

Roads

The bright spot among all this has been the number of road improvements.

[Ekareach Street 100.]

And with the smooth new roads, there is also the so-called unsexy infrastructure – the cabling and drainage that goes underneath.

[Ekareach Street 100.]

A list of current and proposed construction projects in Sihanoukville (city and province), Cambodia.

Sihanoukville Construction Sites Map

[Map of Sihanoukville construction projects.]

Sihanoukville Construction reports

How to fix Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville report: abandoned towers and seaside redevelopment (December 2024)

Sihanoukville Construction Update – 2022 Edition

Planned/Under Construction

Diamond Seaview Bay

Address: 2 Thnou St, Sokha Beach, Sihanoukville.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

Prince Golden Bay Complex

Address: Sokha Beach, Sihanoukville.
Developer: Prince Huan Yu Real Estate (Cambodia) Group Co.,Ltd.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

Prince Golden Bay Complex comprises of Prince Golden Bay (3 apartment towers and hotel) and Prince Huan Yu Mall.

The website princehuanyu.com is offline.

Prince Golden Bay / Prince Huan Yu Mall News
New mall hopes to keep Sihanoukville tourism alive – [05/10/20]

Soft opening of Prince Mall in Sihanoukville delights shoppers – [05/10/20]
A new luxury retail space opened its doors to consumers on 1 October 2020 after a three-year construction period. Prince Mall is the first retail mall in Cambodia for Prince Huan Yu Real Estate (Cambodia) Group Co., LTD, a subsidiary of Chinese owned Prince Holding Group. It is a shopping mall with five floors and an area of 50,000 square metres, which offers a stylish shopping experience to the customers in Sihanoukville.

Prince Tian Xi Wan

Address: Victory Beach, Sihanoukville.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

Prince Tian Xi Wan News
Massive Chinese resort breaks ground on Sihanoukville coast – [11/06/19]
“The project, which will be developed by China Construction Fourth Engineering Division (Cambodia) Corp., Ltd, will comprise a five-star hotel, five-star standard serviced apartments, the largest duty-free shop in Sihanoukville, a luxury shopping walk, an IMAX cinema, a yacht dock, and beach bathing, Prince Real Estate Group said.”

Star Bay

Address: 2 Thnou St, Preah Sihanouk.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

Victory Bay

Address: 2 Thnou St, Preah Sihanouk.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

The Seagate Suite

Address: Phum Bei Krong Preah Sihanouk.
Website: theseagatesuite.com
News: skyscrapercity.com.

159-metre/43-floor apartment tower at Victory Beach.

The Seagate Suite News
New luxury development for Sihanoukville – [14/06/17]
“The condominium project called The Sea Gate Suit, at a height of 43 floors and situated in #3 commune in Sihanoukville city, is an investment by KH CN International Investment and Development Co, Ltd and will be jointly built by China Construction (S.E.A) (United Kingdom), along with the Thoroni Real Estate Company.”

Golden Sun Sky Casino & Hotel

Address: Otres Beach, Sihanoukville.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

Golden Sun Sky Casino & Hotel News
Suncity links up with Golden Sun Sky for S’ville resort project – [07/09/18]
“Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Cambodian firm Golden Sun Sky Entertainment in a project to build an integrated resort in Sihanoukville. Suncity said the capital investment for the project is $360 million.”

Gold Coast at Sihanoukville

Address: Near Kaoh Puos Bridge, Sihanoukville.
Developer: Nath Land Development, a division of Grand Lion Group.
Architect: Tandem Architects 2001 and interior design firm, JKY Concept.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

Le Meridian Sihanoukville and Lyon D’or Residence Tower.

Gold Coast at Sihanoukville News
The Grand Lion Group Inks Contract With Marriott International for Le Meridien Hotel in Sihanoukville, Cambodia – [12/03/18]

The Bund

Address: Mlop Chrey Beach, Sihanoukville.
Developer: Westport Bund Investment Center.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

An apartment complex on the beach, next to Prince Tian Xi Wan.

Novotel Holiday Palace

Address: 2 Thnou Street, Independence Beach, Sihanoukville.

News:
Hotel giant denies blame for ‘illegal’ S’Ville beach construction – [28/06/19]

KB Central

Address: Otres Beach, Sihanoukville.
Developer: Anco Group.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

KB Central is a new urban area behind Golden Sun Sky Casino & Hotel on Otres Beach.

Oriental Pearl Hotel

Address: 23 Tola St, Sihanoukville.

Xin Du Hui International Grand Hotel

Address: Poulowai Street 300, Preah Sihanouk.

Sihanoukville Financial Tower

Address: Near Starbay City, Sihanoukville.

Sihanoukville Financial Tower (Also referred to as Cambodia Financial Centre) is a proposed 494metre/106-floor tower.

Completed Projects

Sunshine Bay Hotel and Resort

Address: Independence Beach, Sihanoukville.
News: skyscrapercity.com.

Sunshine Bay Hotel and Resort News
High-end hotel opens in Sihanoukville – [22/10/19]
“Sunshine Bay Hotel and Resort had its grand opening on Friday, according to a post on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Tourism.”

KB Hotel

Address: Xu Aimin Road, Village 6, Sangkat 4, Otres Beach, Sihanoukville.
Website: kaibo-hotel.com.

Sihanoukville News

3-year visa move to help S’ville tide over real estate slump – [02/02/24]

Plans to attract investment in Sihanoukville’s abandoned buildings – [01/02/24]
“The ‘2024 Special Investment Program for Preah Sihanouk’ aims to stimulate investment to revamp the hundreds of half-built buildings that plague the province.”

Hun Manet blames derelict building problem on foreign media – [01/02/24]
“Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet blamed bad foreign press for the abrupt end to a development boom in the coastal resort of Sihanoukville that has left hundreds of derelict buildings in its wake”

$1B needed to finish unfinished projects in Sihanoukville – [26/09/23]

Rebuilding Cambodia’s gambling Mecca – [01/05/23]
“Locals hope for a return of Chinese investors.”

Sihanoukville to inject life into abandoned buildings – [17/02/23]

359 high-rise building construction sites remain stalled in Sihanoukville – [16/02/23]

Action plan soon for S’ville unfinished buildings – [26/01/23]

Inter-ministerial meeting gauges Preah Sihanouk’s unfinished project issue – [21/01/23]

World Bank to back study for key S’ville logistics hub – [22/12/22]

Plans for Sihanoukville unfinished buildings in pipeline – [25/08/22]
“A senior official at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction said the problem of nearly 100 unfinished buildings under construction in Preah Sihanouk province will eventually be resolved as some building owners are gradually beginning work on them again, while the government also formulates a post Covid-19 re-development strategy.”

‘Ghost buildings’ show boom times are over for Cambodian resort town – [16/08/22]
“Construction in the city of Sihanoukville had been big business but many Chinese investors fled after the pandemic.”

Stuck in Sihanoukville: Projects grind to halt in Cambodia resort town – [05/08/22]
“Rampant development turns seaside jewel into mess of unfinished casinos and condos.”

Chinese exodus stalls building construction in Sihanoukville – [11/07/22]

The social costs of Chinese transnational crime in Sihanoukville – [05/07/22]
“Unrestricted and unregulated development has allowed crime to flourish, and eroded the trust between Cambodians and Chinese expatriates.”

Pros outweigh cons in plan to transform Preah Sihanouk: study – [29/06/22]

Preah Sihanouk voters conflicted by years of land disputes – [03/06/22]

Behind the blood slaves in Sihanoukville: My three years in Cambodia – [01/06/22]

Sihanoukville pays the price for heavy reliance on Chinese – [09/05/22]

Preah Sihanouk plan’s Phase II ‘soon’ – [04/04/22]
“Preparation for the Preah Sihanouk Multi-Purpose Special Economic Zone masterplan is entering into the second phase, which illustrates the future of the plan, once the Ministry of Economy and Finance reviews and finalises the draft results from the report’s first phase.”

Sihanoukville set to be ‘tugboat’ for Cambodia with master plan – [10/12/21]

Report claims 63 Sihanoukville casinos have closed down or temporarily suspended staff in 2020 – [08/10/20]

In Cambodian casino town, Chinese bet on future after coronavirus – [25/06/20]

A pandemic and gambling ban Has left Cambodia’s ‘New Shenzhen’ unfinished – [11/06/20]

Sihanoukville records over $7 billion in construction – [10/06/20]
“Cambodia’s coastal Preah Sihanouk province has attracted construction project investment valued at more than $7 billion over the last four years – most from Chinese nationals – the provincial administration said yesterday.”

In scrappy Cambodian casino town, Chinese plan future beyond coronavirus – [01/04/20]

dw.com Cambodia: Chinese investors in Sihanoukville – [16/03/20]
“China is investing billions abroad, including in Cambodia. The once picturesque beach town of Sihanoukville is turning into a Chinese tourist magnet with hotels and casinos. Most of the profits are made by Chinese people.”

Aftermath of Chinese exodus from Sihanoukville – [04/03/20]

Sihanoukville, Cambodian magnet for Chinese casinos, loses its pull, leaving thousands owed money and unable to move on – [20/02/20]
“Thousands of Chinese construction workers left unpaid and stranded as work on half-built Chinese casinos comes to a halt following August ban on online gambling.”

In Cambodia’s boomtown, a gamble on Chinese money goes sour – [10/01/20]
“Online casino ban slams the brakes on Sihanoukville’s runaway growth.”

Casinos close, gamblers flee Kingdom ahead of inspections – [31/12/19]

How China changed Sihanoukville – [29/12/19]
“Sihanoukville used to be a sleepy coastal town in south Cambodia. Its beaches were known for their quiet, cosy – albeit a little seedy – atmosphere that attracted mostly families, individual travellers and backpackers. Aside from the goings-on of the tourists and those connected with the country’s sole deep-water port, nothing much had changed over the years. That was until the Chinese investment flooded in as a result of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).”

Cambodia’s Casino Gamble: All in on Sihanoukville – [04/12/19]
“101 East investigates the growing criminal underbelly of a new Chinese casino empire in Cambodia.”

How Cambodia’s backpacker haven became a Chinese casino mecca – [05/10/19]

Sihanoukville’s big gamble: the sleepy beach town in Cambodia that bet its future on Chinese money – [24/09/19]

How Chinese money is changing Cambodia – [22/08/19]
“Cambodia has seen a huge influx of Chinese investment, workers and tourists in recent years. Many in Cambodia are increasingly worried about the negative impact it is having.”

Sihanoukville is booming but it now ‘feels like a Chinese town, not a Cambodian town’, residents complain – [13/08/19]
“Provincial officials say Chinese nationals own 90 per cent of businesses, including more than 150 hotels and four dozen casinos.”

Minister temporarily halts work at 22 building sites in Sihanoukville – [05/08/19]
“Land Management Minister Chea Sophara has ordered the temporary suspension of work at 22 unlicensed construction sites in Sihanoukville.”

Sihanoukville: A Cambodian city losing its ‘Cambodian-ness’ – [20/04/19]
“Unchecked development by Chinese investors has come at a cost, freezing out locals and changing the city’s character.”

Phay Siphan: Preah Sihanouk will become a second Singapore – [13/03/19]
“Government spokesman Phay Siphan said on Monday that Preah Sihanouk province will become a second Singapore, as authorities were warned that its development, fuelled largely by Chinese investment, was coming at a cost to locals.”

‘No Cambodia left’: how Chinese money is changing Sihanoukville – [31/07/18]
“The once-sleepy beach town of Sihanoukville has been transformed by Chinese investment – and the sheer speed of development has divided locals.”

Chinese mafia taking over idyllic Cambodian beach – [29/07/18]
“A few years ago this town was filled with Aussie backpackers probably having a few too many beers. Now it’s unrecognisable.”

This Cambodian city is turning into a Chinese enclave, and not everyone is happy – [29/03/18]

Chinese property hunters flood into Ochheuteal Beach – [23/03/18]
“Chinese investment in Sihanoukville has intensified, with investors snapping up properties in Ochheuteal Beach and putting pressure on local and Western-owned businesses.”

Bay of Lights is a proposed new urban development in Ream Bay, Sihanoukville Province, Cambodia. The project covers 934 hectares of reclaimed land in Ream Bay, with an estimated US$16 billion in total investment.

Bay of Lights was launched as Ream City by Canopy Sands Development, a member of Prince Holding Group, and is designed by Surbana Jurong from Singapore.

This new city will include commercial and residential property with up to 130,000 residents, and will include a 6km beachfront.

Bay of Lights Map

[Map of Bay of Lights, Cambodia.]

Links and Resources

Website: thebayoflights.com
Developer: Canopy Sands Development Co., Ltd.
Masterplan: Surbana Jurong.

News Archive

2024

Bay of Lights unveils vision for Sihanoukville coastal tourism at Cambodia Sea Festival 2024 – [18/12/24]

Bay of Lights: Sihanoukville’s New Dawn of Urban Excellence (Press Release) – [17/05/24]
“The Bay of Lights, spanning 934 hectares, is an ambitious $16 billion coastal entertainment and urban development project in Ream City, Sihanoukville.”

IN FOCUS: Cambodia’s US$16 billion ‘eco-city’ raises financial and environmental concerns – [04/05/24]
“The multi-billion dollar development project in the coastal city of Sihanoukville has stirred discontent among locals and fuelled environmentalists’ worries.”

2022

Canopy Sands breaks ground on 934ha Bay of Lights project in Sihanoukville (Press Release) – [22/12/22]

2021

Ream City: The plan to transform Sihanoukville into a green living hub (Sponsored) – [12/11/21]
“Eco-Business talks to Canopy Sands MD Khong Weng Fook about the measures being taken to manage the impact of Ream City, a 834-hectare development in the Cambodian coastal city of Sihanoukville.”

Surbana Jurong’s masterplan for US$16b ‘Ream City’ in Cambodia gets go-ahead – [10/02/21]
“Surbana Jurong’s sustainable development masterplan to develop an 834ha “Ream City” in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, has been approved by Canopy Sands Development, a member of Prince Holding Group.”

New city for Sihanoukville ‘has immense potential’ for province – [10/02/21]

Master plan for Ream City given nod – [07/02/21]
“Canopy Sands Development Co Ltd, a member of Prince Holding Group, one of Cambodia’s largest and fastest growing conglomerates, approved a master plan to develop Preah Sihanouk province’s Ream bay into the $16 billion Ream City.”

Prince-linked firm pours sand into 400 hectares of bay without study – [02/02/21]
“Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a sub-decree in September 2019 granting some 427 hectares of ocean to a little-known company registered just one month before, Canopy Sands Development.

The company may be newly created, but its directors are no strangers to the country: Its chair is Chen Zhi, the leader of the expansive Prince Group and a naturalized Cambodian citizen, and the two other directors also hold several companies inside and outside the group.”

2020

Tourist area greenlit in Sihanoukville – [17/02/20]
“The National Committee for Coastal Management and Development will coordinate with relevant ministries over the establishment of a billion-dollar tourist area named Neak Reach in Preah Sihanouk province after it was proposed by the Ministry of Tourism.”