Nomura Plans Millennium Dome Project

A company backed by Japanese investment bank Nomura International has won the bidding to take over the troubled Millennium Dome in London next year, the British government announced. The company, called Dome Europe, said it plans to invest about $1.2 billion to turn the dome and the surrounding area into “Europe’s first urban entertainment resort.” The Millennium Dome, a giant, space-age mushroom perched alongside the Thames, has swallowed up $812 million in government funding and failed to draw large crowds since its opening New Year’s Day. It was once hyped by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labor Party as the world’s most exciting millennium attraction, but it has since fired its top executive in its struggle to stay afloat until the end of the year. Nomura and partner Hyper Entertainment--a unit of Sony Corp. of Japan that has built attractions in Berlin, Tokyo and San Francisco--set up Dome Europe to develop the project.