E Land bares renovation plans for Coral Ocean, PIC

South Korean investment giant E Land trumpeted yesterday a record high occupancy of 115 percent in August for the renamed Coral Ocean Golf Resort, while announcing that a $1 million to $2 million renovation of 10 executive cottages at the resort will start in September.

Tae Ho Kim, chief operating officer of E Land’s Micronesian Resort Inc., called a news briefing late yesterday afternoon on the status of E Land’s renovation plans, including those for Pacific Islands Club and the former The Palms Resort.

Tae Ho Kim, right, chief operating officer of E Land’s Micronesian Resort Inc., shows an artist’s rendition of a Coral Ocean Golf Resort room renovation plan while MRI’s senior hotel operations manager Dennis Seo, left, looks on during a news briefing yesterday afternoon. (Haidee V. Eugenio)

Kim, through senior hotel operations manager Dennis Seo, said they changed Coral Ocean Point’s name to Coral Ocean Golf Resort around July this year but the corporate name remains as Suwaso Corp.

“The next step is to renovate 10 executive cottages with total 20 rooms. Each executive cottage has two rooms,” Kim said, through Seo.

Renovating these executive cottages would cost between $1 million and $2 million, they said.

The planned re-opening is Nov. 28, 2014, but remains subject to factors beyond E Land’s control, Kim said.

This means by that date, E Land has put back online a total of 100 hotel rooms, inclusive of 80 renovated rooms since Dec. 29, 2013.

The renovation of the executive cottages is on top of the $4-million renovation that E Land’s MRI did to the main building, some 80 hotel rooms, the golf course and other areas of the hotel, Seo said.

Seo also announced that Coral Ocean Golf Resort is experiencing a 115-percent occupancy rate for the month of August, owing to back-to-back booking.

“The reopening of the central building and the hotel rooms is better than what we expected. It has positive effects,” Seo added.

Some hotel rooms are planned for renovation to cater to honeymooners.

Seo said most of their hotel customers are tourists from China, while the rest are mainly from Korea and Japan.

He pointed out that their renovation schedules also depend on the amount of time they need to wait for permits from regulatory agencies.

E Land also continues to plan for the construction of a new 200-room hotel in the same area as the current Coral Ocean Golf Resort.

PIC, The Palms

E Land plans to renovate PIC in San Antonio. Ken Corp. is operating PIC for E Land, owner of the facility.

Seo said E Land plans an up to $1-million capital expenditure on PIC, while Ken Corp. can also launch its own $1 million renovation.

Kim and Seo reiterated that The Palms Resort may not reopen under the global brand Sheraton. They said while they are still negotiating with Sheraton, they do not want that negotiation to further delay E Land’s plan of reopening the hotel by end-October 2015 so they may reopen it under one of E Land’s existing 5-star hotel brands.

These brands include Lexington, Kensington, Flora, and Star Hotel.

Seo said when their Kensington brand hotel opened in Korea’s Jeju Island in April, their room rate was higher than the Hyatt’s.

E Land’s MRI plans a $20- to $30-million renovation of the former The Palms Resort.

Also present in yesterday’s 4pm news briefing was MRI’s human resources manager Bertha Leon Guerrero.