Northern Mariana Islands to inspect IPI’s unfinished Garapan hotel casino

Inspectors will check the state of the building due to recent earthquakes in some Asian countries.

Northern Mariana Islands.- The Department of Public Works (DPW) has announced that it will inspect Imperial Pacific International (IPI)’s unfinished casino and hotel building in Garapan. Ray N. Yumul, secretary of the DPW, told Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) vice chairman Ralph S. Demapan that building safety inspectors will check the state of the building’s electrical, mechanical, and standard components due to recent earthquakes in some Asian countries.

Inspectors will also verify the integrity and welding connections of the metal parts. Construction on IPI’s Garapan hotel casino has been on hold since the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, the DPW fears the building’s structural, mechanical and electrical systems may have been affected by extreme weather conditions. The last inspection took place on December 27, 2023.

IPI halted casino operations in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last April, citing debts of over US$165.8m. Among the company’s largest unsecured creditors are the CNMI Treasury, MCC International, the CCC, the law offices of Hughes Hubbard & Reed, Century Estate Investment, CNMI Division of Revenue and Taxation and Joshua Gray with claims ranging from US$5.68m to US$62m.

CCC requests US$3.1m budget

The CCC has submitted a budget request of US$3.1m for the fiscal year 2026. At the CCC’s regular monthly meeting, chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero said the funds were needed to allow the commission to accomplish its duties and responsibilities effectively and efficiently as mandated by Public Law 18-56, which legalised casino gaming on Saipan, as amended by P.L. 19-24 and P.L. 21-38.

The proposed budget includes US$2,343,566 for personnel costs and US$806,434 for operational expenses. The commission also intends to hire 50 full-time employees, the same number of employees it had in previous annual appropriations. The CCC has been without income since the closure of IPI in 2020. Since then, the CCC has not collected its annual regulatory fee of US$3.15m.