Tinian regulators have pulled the gaming licenses of two Korean developers and one from Taiwan for failing to follow through on resort projects on the western Pacific island.
“The lack of progress in these conditional and plenary licenses has failed to bring about the economic development that has been much needed on the island,” the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission said in a statement announcing the revocations.
The companies are:
• Marianas Resort Development—a Korean-owned group not to be confused with Marianas Stars, a company affiliated with the island’s only operating casino—which was licensed back in 2006 for a US$309 million, 400-room complex called Matua Bay Resort not far from the island’s airport.
• Neo Gold Wings Paradise Saipan, also out of Korea, licensed in 2008 for a $200 million project that was slated to include a 1,000-room hotel with a casino, water park and golf course.
• HW Gold Island Holding, a subsidiary of Taiwan construction giant Howarm. HW has proposed a number of resort-related investments on Tinian and was licensed in 2012 in connection with a failed bid to buy the Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino, the island’s sole operating casino.
Tinian Dynasty was purchased last year by Marianas Stars parent Mega Stars Overseas, a Hong Kong group with Macau junket ties. Mega Stars has invested around $50 million to date in expanding and improving the resort in conjunction with Marianas Stars’ failed bid for a new gaming license authorized earlier this year by neighboring Saipan, which has never hosted a casino. The government of Saipan awarded the license to a company called Best Sunshine International, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific Holdings, whose portfolio also includes Macau junket investments.
Saipan and Tinian are the largest islands of the self-governing US Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.
The Tinian commission said it will look to put one or more of the three licenses out for bid “within six months, if not sooner”.
One of them is expected to be awarded to a Macau group with ties to HW Gold Holdings. Alter City Group Holdings, as the entity is known, is partnering with STJ Golden Island Investments, which is affiliated with HW, on a $300 million resort whose plans also call for a golf course, villas and other leisure attractions. Alter City, which is incorporated in the Northern Marianas, has asked the government there for a lease on 152 hectares that had been earmarked at one time for a similarly sized gaming resort proposed by another developer but never built.
The Tinian government supports the application, the Saipan Tribune says, and has petitioned the commonwealth’s legislature for a quick approval of the lease.
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