The Osaka Prefectural Assembly has approved an IR area development plan for an integrated resort development on Osaka’s Yumeshima Island, with the majority of Osaka Ishin, Komeito and LDP voting in favor.
There will be now be a vote at the Osaka City Council on 29 March, where it is also expected to pass, after which the proposal will be submitted to the national government by the 28 April 2022 deadline.
Osaka’s IR proposal is in partnership with a consortium headed by MGM Resorts and ORIX Corp and includes a goal of breaking ground in 2023 before opening the property in the autumn of 2029.
The planned total floor area is 770,000 square meters with an estimated economic ripple effect in the surrounding Kansai region of JPY 1.58 trillion (US$13.7 billion) during construction and estimated annual sales of JPY 540 billion (US$4.7 billion).
Osaka’s ambition is to develop a metropolitan IR. The designated location is a 490,000 square meter plot on the north side of Yumeshima, a manmade island in Osaka Bay. The site is expected to require land reform construction costs of JPY 79 billion (US$683 million), which includes JPY 36 billion (US$311 million) for soil contamination countermeasures and JPY 41 billion (US$354 million) for liquefaction countermeasures.
Alongside MGM and ORIX, at least 20 other corporations are planning to invest in the IR. They include super general contractors such as Obayashi Corporation, Takanawa Corporation and Taisei Corporation plus other major players such as Kansai Electric Power, Osaka Gas, Panasonic, Kintetsu Group Holdings, West Japan Railway Company, NTT West Corporation and JTB, among others.
MGM previously announced that development costs are expected to reach JPY 1.08 trillion (US$9.4 billion). Of this, JPY 530 billion (US$4.6 billion) will be investment by related corporations while the remaining JPY 550 billion (US$4.8 billion) will be financed.