Best Sunshine closer to a casino land lease

Best Sunshine International Ltd. is on the verge of securing a lease of fresh land after officials in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands finally issued an Intent to Award notice.

US.- The Department of Public Lands (DPL) has set some conditions for the issuance of the notice to Best Sunshine, a unit of HongKong-listed Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd. which operates a temporary casino in Saipan.

The DPL asked Best Sunshine to include authorisation for DPL to obtain bank or financial information from the casino to vet project financing and a timetable for the project. The DPL didn’t deny nor confirm this information.

DPL secretary Marianne Teregeyo stated that they issued an Intent to Award: “They were the only company that submitted a proposal, despite DPL’s efforts (before I came into office in February) to send the RFP package to developers off-island. However, I am uncomfortable to release the letter as there are items that we will need to negotiate with. A meeting will be set with Imperial Pacific sometime in the next two weeks.”

In November 2015, Best Sunshine has expressed its intent to bid for 160 hectares of public land, which is approximately 6.8 miles from its temporary casino. Imperial Pacific, which runs the temporary casino, Best Sunshine Live, at the T Galleria, has pledged to spend as much as US$7.1 billion on a permanent casino resort on Saipan. If awarded to the casino, DPL would complete a competitive bid process that began last October.