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DPL urges MRI to start considering 25-year lease extension for COP
Department of Public Lands Secretary Pete A. Tenorio is encouraging E Land’s Micronesia Resort Inc. to start exploring the possibility of extending its present land lease for an additional 25 years. The current lease is not expiring until 2026, however.
Tenorio said other hotels on public lands have already been considering lease extensions. Those hotels with only a few years left on their public land leases include Marianas Resort & Spa, Hyatt Regency Saipan, Fiesta Resort & Spa, and Kanoa Resort.
In a March 17 letter to Suwaso Corp. general manager Tae Ho Kim, Tenorio said as the remaining period of their present leasehold is expiring 12 years from now, “DPL would encourage MRI to join other similarly situated hotel owners to explore the possibility of extending your lease for an additional 25 years subject of course to legislative approval.”
Suwaso Corp.’s majority owner is the South Korean-based giant E Land, through Micronesian Resort Inc.
Tenorio’s one-page letter also acknowledges Suwaso’s update on future improvements specified in the amended lease extension agreement of Dec. 12, 2011, along with renovation projects that Suwaso and DPL agreed to be pursued “in the interim period prior to your major improvements under the lease.”
COP is undergoing a $4-million renovation, and is also looking at bringing a global hotel brand for its facility.
Tenorio’s letter to Suwaso, or E Land’s MRI, comes shortly after E Land announced that another of its hotel on Saipan, the former The Palms Resort in San Roque, will reopen under the global hotel brand Sheraton.
