In Macau, a government official has reportedly declared that her office has now processed all of the necessary licensing paperwork regarding The 13 luxury hotel and is now waiting on the new scheme’s developer to request a site inspection.

Located on a 65,000 sq ft plot near the border between the Cotai and Coloane districts of Macau, The 13 is set to be one of the most expensive hotels-per-key ever constructed but earlier missed a July 31 opening deadline set by creditors that had loaned the project approximately $387 million.

According to a report from GGRAsia, the latest revelation came from Maria Helena De Senna Fernandes, Director for the Macau Government Tourism Office, who purportedly added that the site visit was simply a formality in the process of licensing the hotel from developer The 13 Holdings Limited.

“All the paperwork is ready, we are just waiting for the developer to request the site inspection,” Fernandes reportedly told GGRAsia on Wednesday. “After that, we can issue the license.”

Last year reportedly saw The 13 Holdings Limited mention the possibility of hosting a casino inside The 13 but the intervening months have seen the developer provide no further details regarding the likelihood of such an eventuality coming to pass.

Despite the ongoing delay, The 13 Holdings Limited reportedly told GGRAsia that it is in the “final stages of bringing the project to market” and it would “announce to the public accordingly” should any major updates occur.

However, GGRAsia reported that brokerage firm Union Gaming Securities Asia Limited has poured cold water on the possibility of The 13 opening this year by stating that it “would not be surprised” if the project does not begin welcoming its first guests before early-2018.

“Under the assumption that the company is able to raise sufficient capital, we would not be surprised if the opening were to slip into early-2018 given the time-consuming process of restarting what has become a stalled project,” Union Gaming Securities Asia Limited analyst Grant Govertsen reportedly told GGRAsia.