A regulatory dispute over the environmental clearance for Dreams' Parque Ferial AGAC casino project in Talca remains unresolved, despite a recent ruling by Chile's Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) rejecting one of the appeals filed against the project.
The SEA's Executive Directorate ruled inadmissible an extraordinary review appeal filed by Rodrigo González Ormazábal, who sought to overturn a favorable pertinence consultation granted to the project in June 2025. The agency determined that no factual error attributable to the service had been established, a requirement for that type of appeal to proceed.
However, the resolution's second operative point referred a separate, subsidiary request, an invalidation petition also filed by González Ormazábal, to SEA's regional office in the Maule region for review, since that mechanism falls under the regional authority's jurisdiction rather than the executive directorate's. The invalidation request seeks a new review of the legality of the pertinence consultation that favored the project.
SEA's regional office in Maule confirmed that the invalidation request remains under review and that it has up to six months to issue a decision, indicating the administrative dispute over the project's environmental clearance has not been fully resolved, despite reports framing the SEA ruling as clearing the project's last regulatory hurdle.
Construction work has nonetheless continued. Dreams has said the project, an entertainment complex including a casino, boulevard of restaurants and shops, built on the site of the former Fital fairground in the Maule region, is roughly 75 percent complete, with the company still targeting a November 2026 opening.
The $21m project received environmental sign-off in mid-2025 after authorities determined it would not require a full environmental impact assessment, concluding it would not significantly affect the nearby Cajón del Río Claro and Estero Piduco wetland areas that had drawn scrutiny from local opponents.
The casino is part of the $21m Parque Ferial del Maule complex, built on the site of the former Fital fairground, where construction is roughly 75% complete with Dreams still targeting a November 2026 opening
