Imperial Pacific International has been granted a 10-month extension to complete construction on its Imperial Pacific Resort in Saipan following a request last month to amend its Casino License Agreement due to numerous construction delays.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Lottery Commission met this week along with members of the House of Representatives, IPI officials and community figures where it was determined that Imperial Pacific Resort’s original 31 October completion deadline be moved to 2018.
The Commission also approved an extension on operations at IPI’s temporary casino Best Sunshine Live, which was due to end this Sunday. IPI had been seeking to extend operations to 31 October 17 but both Best Sunshine Live’s operating license and Imperial Pacific Resort’s construction deadline have now been extended through to August 2018.
According to the Saipan Tribune, Department of Commerce Secretary and Commission head Mark O Rabauliman said the extension was granted due to the significant investment already made in the Imperial Pacific Resort project.
“We’ve moved forward with the extension based on a the public comments, made, those who are in support, and the concerns raised in the meeting,” he is quoted as saying.
“The thought process here is there are a lot of livelihood that’s tied into it. We’ve come this far on the progress IPI had made, just to immediately yank it without further thoughts put forth, to me seems irresponsible.”
Imperial Pacific Resort held a soft opening on 31 March but still has significant work remaining to open its doors to the public. Only weeks earlier the company had requested its construction extension, citing, “severe damage to construction equipment from Typhoon Soudelor that took several months to repair; adverse weather conditions making tower cranes inoperable, unstable soil conditions causing damage to pilings that were driven into the ground; a lack of readily available skilled laborers; an overabundance of water at the construction site delaying the pouring of the concrete foundation; lack of necessary construction materials” and more.
