Empire East Land Holdings Inc started discussions with Kazuo Okada. The said discussions were about a purchase of a lot in Manila. The Japanese tycoon intended to build a US$2 billion casino resort complex said the president of the Philippines real estate developer.

Anthony Charlemagne Yu, president of the real estate developer said that the talks were very preliminary. He refused to say whether the talks included acquisition of the entire lot where Okada planned to build the casino complex or merely just a part of it.

Okada's Universal Entertainment Corp planned the development. However, a representative from the company could not be reached immediately to give comments regarding the report. A land deal with Empire East could get the Japanese billionaire's first casino venture in Manila back on track. Empire East is a unit of Alliance Global Inc through its property arm, Megaworld Corp. There were already three casinos allowed to operate in the 100 hectare Entertainment City near Manila Bay including rival, Solaire Resort & Casino.