NORTH ASIA 26
Two locations left with sole bidders as operators exit Wakayama’s IR bid appears to be on the ropes as the Suncity Group has withdrawn from the RFP process.
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(Credit: Andrea De Santis)
his leaves the Wakayama RFP—which has been delayed for what until now had been unclear reasons—with only one remaining applicant. It doesn’t help that the last firm standing, the Clairvest Group, may or may not have presented the prefectural government with a credible proposal.
Asia Gaming Briefings | June 2021
All that is known is that Clairvest has been seeking for the past year to “quarterback” an IR bid together with other unnamed partners, but the degree to which the Canadian investment firm has succeeded in making strong allies remains to be seen. The two scenarios which seem to remain are that, like Osaka, Wakayama is now left with
a single potential IR consortium against which it has little leverage, or else the prefecture’s bid for an IR license will soon collapse altogether. Either way, the chances of seeing an IR built at Wakayama’s once-coveted Marina City location are clearly fading. Before its sudden withdrawal, the Suncity Group had been taking quite a high profile.
