Casino industry on a roll

The Fitial administration will sign an agreement for a fourth casino investment on Tinian next week, the governor announced yesterday.

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial also said that the administration has found a fifth investor that could take the final casino license that the gaming commission was allowed to grant under the Tinian gaming control act.

According to the governor, the CNMI government and Baltimore-based Cordish Company will sign the memorandum of agreement next week.

Cordish is reportedly looking to build a casino and golf course on Tinian. The minimum investment amount is about $200 million.

Fitial did not name the fifth investor, saying only that it operates a famous American Indian casino in Connecticut.

According to its website, Cordish Company has diversified operations, including media, entertainment, gaming, shopping centers, restaurants, clubs, office, and residential or student housing.

Cordish, in partnership with Taubman Company, developed the $150 million Charleston Place in Charleston, South Carolina. Through its affiliate Power Plant Entertainment, the company developed two 4-Diamond Hard Rock themed hotels and casinos in Hollywood and Tampa.

The website also said that the company “is in the entitlements, design-development phases of several other major hotel and casino resorts in the United States and abroad.”

Earlier this week, the Department of Public Lands signed a memorandum of understanding with representatives of the Marianas Resort Development Co. Inc., which plans to build a new $170-million casino and golf course project on Tinian.

MRDC comes in addition to Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino, which has been operating since 1998, and Bridge Investment Group, which also looks to invest about $150 million in a new hotel casino.

Phase I of the project will be completed after an initial investment of more than $170 million. It will involve the construction of a 300-room hotel casino, with 100 full suites and 200 junior suites, four full-service restaurants, a spa, wedding chapel, shopping arcade, and a convention facility that will accommodate 600 people.

The initial phase, expected to take 16-24 months, will also culminate in a completion of an 18-hole championship golf course, the first on the island of Tinian.

Phase II of the project will involve the construction of luxury bungalows and additional rooms at the hotel casino.