Best Sunshine runs into hot water over T Galleria lease

Wednesday 13th of May 2015

Best Sunshine International, which is planning to build a $7 billion integrated resort on the island of Saipan in the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas, appears to have clashed with the territory’s Casino Commission.

The regulator has asked the company, a unit of Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific, for the copy of a lease agreement it has with T Galleria in a separate venture from the IR. The commission says the lease is subject to review for regulatory purposes.

However, Best Sunshine has refused, saying the accord is a confidential landlord-and-tenant agreement, local media has reported. The company plans to establish a casino training facility at the premises.

The commissioners said they also wanted to see Best Sunshine’s other lease agreements including the one for the Samoan Housing property.

Commission Executive Director Edward Deleon Guerrero was cited as saying: “If Best Sunshine is going to be subleasing on its own or through another organization like Imperial Pacific Imperial [its mother company], we need to regulate that too.”

He added the company has been negotiating “all by themselves.”

The discussion comes just weeks after Best Sunshine concluded lengthy negotiations over a parcel of land in Garapan for its resort.

The company signed a 40-year lease on the 19,154 sq. m. of public land in Garapan at the site formerly known as Samoan Housing Area with a negotiated and agreed upon appraisal value of $5 million, five times more than the prior appraisal that set its value at $901,000.

Bricks & Mortar