Casino operator Best Sunshine International (BSI) is trying to get ahold of $550 million to complete the Grand Mariana Casino and Hotel in Saipan, local media has reported.
Edward Deleon Guerrero, executive director of the Commonwealth Casino Gaming Commission, told Post Guam that Best Sunshine is “seeking the approval” of SC Lowy, Standard & Poor, Morgan Stanley for the much-needed funding to finish the casino.
Deleon Guerrero said the financial institutions have already inquired about the local casino industry “to try to understand the regulatory process of the commission, as BSI is trying to secure funding for the completion of Grand Mariana.”
The executive director noted that the banking institutions are looking at a $400 million funding for the unfinished casino resort.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Lottery Commission awarded Best Sunshine International, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd., a license to operate a temporary casino on the Pacific island two years ago.
But early this year, Imperial Pacific announced that it has received all the necessary permits to begin building its permanent Saipan gaming venue, the Grand Mariana Casino and Hotel Resort in Garapan.
The Asian VIP gaming investor has already invested HK$ 465 million ($60 million) on design, consulting, construction material and labor related to the project. The company had originally vowed to spend up to $7.1 billion building the property, but that was before China’s VIPs developed anemia.
The company plans to downsize or even sell off its food processing and trading business on the Chinese mainland in order to focus on its gaming operations.
The Grand Mariana was originally scheduled to open its casino doors this December while the accompanying hotel would open at the end of first quarter 2017. Imperial Pacific offered no indication it was planning to shift those timelines.
CNMI tells Imperial Pacific to pay $100k for environmental violations
Meanwhile, Imperial Pacific has found itself in hot water over the unfinished casino resort.
Early this week, CNMI’s Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality is asking the casino company to pay US$100,000 for “willfully and repeatedly” violating its permit conditions on the Grand Mariana construction site, Radio NZ reported.
Bureau officials said the company’s construction workers “worked through ways to illegally pump the project’s waste and discharge and their potential contaminants” into the Saipan lagoon despite receiving warnings, fines and even cease-and-desist orders between February and April.
