According to MGM, Osaka IR will Likely Open around 2030

Bill Hornbuckle, the CEO and president of MGM Resorts, stated this morning that the company’s integrated resort project in Osaka, Japan, may not open until 2030, potentially in the second quarter. The start date for the project had previously been set for 2029.

Given the robust recovery in the Macau market, the ongoing growth in Las Vegas, and the recent news that MGM’s area development plan for Osaka had been approved by Japan’s central government, Hornbuckle was speaking during the company’s 1Q23 earnings call when he said that the quarter was possibly the best in MGM history.

When questioned about the development schedule now that it had obtained approval, Hornbuckle acknowledged that a 2029 opening was improbable.

“Obviously the area development plan and the certification by the national government was the big outstanding item to get across the finish line and that’s been accomplished,” he stated.

We need to complete a land lease and many agreements with the municipality, and we anticipate that they will be completed this quarter or the one after. Having said that, we want to start construction sometime between the end of this year and the first quarter of the following year.

We still have time because it won’t likely open until the first or second quarter of 2030. Since there is obviously a lot of work to be done and the island was created by humans, that is the general time frame.

While significant equity investment would not start until late 2024 and continue through to 2027, “at which point we will be capping it to the financing for the completion of the project,” MGM Resorts Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Halkyard said, bank financing for the project was already underway alongside the company’s local Japanese partner ORIX Corp.

Japan was deemed by Hornbuckle to be a “great opportunity” for MGM’s international aspirations.

According to him, Osaka has 30 million residents within a three-hour commute of our property in Yumeshima. Given its proximity to other significant Asian nations and the fact that Osaka is closer to many northern Chinese cities than any other gaming market, our site in Osaka is also anticipated to boost foreign tourism to Japan.