The final answer received from EA regarding this issue, follows
"I am sorry that you are experiencing this issue with your game, Sim City. After speaking with the specialist team it looks like there may be some preorder content or other limited time content that could be in those cities that you do not have in your game. Unfortunately we do not have a way around this and there is currently no fix for this issue. You will not be able to claim that city without having the content that is needed, and we unfortunately have no way of adding those items to your account.
I will be closing this case as we currently have no work around for this issue. You were directed to the forums as one of the developers may pick up the issue and address it. However, just being completely transparent, with this being a slightly older title chances are it may not be fixed in the future.
Thanks for waiting while we investigated your issue. We’re sorry for the delay in responding to your case."