$25M training facility for BSI OK’d

The Commonwealth Lottery Commission on Tuesday agreed to a proposed temporary “live” training facility that will be established by Best Sunshine International, Ltd.

Best Sunshine will pour around $25 million to build the facility, which will be located at the first level of the DFS building in Garapan, according to Best Sunshine CEO Mark Brown.

Best Sunshine holds an exclusive, 40-year license to operate a casino in the Commonwealth, and the training facility is widely seen as a concrete start in the multi-billion-dollar integrated resort that the group has planned to set up in the CNMI.

Brown said Best Sunshine has penciled April 15 as start date to build the facility and a completion date “some time” in June.

The Commonwealth Lottery Commission, presided over by incoming Commerce Secretary Mark Rabauliman, with Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson, and Public Safety Commissioner James Deleon Guerrero as members, conducted the hearing on the temporary training facility on Capital Hill.

After hearing an overwhelming show of support from lawmakers, government agencies, and non-government groups, the commission held a closed-door executive meeting and after less than an hour, announced the decision.

Rabauliman, however, clarified that the commission has approved the “concept” of Best Sunshine’s training facility but it will still have to review and finalize the proposal.

“We have to finalize and put the language together. The commission has approved the concept, which means we are on board of what Best Sunshine proposed,” Rabauliman said, noting that the establishment of the training facility is not included in the provisions of Public Law 18-38, the casino law.

Rabauliman was not able to give an exact date as to when the commission will announce a final version of the proposal.

He stressed that the commission will make sure that the final language of the proposal will be “in line with the executive branch” of the government.

Employment

According to Brown, the $25-million investment for the training facility will need some 500 personnel that will be sourced locally.

Now that the commission has approved the proposed facility, Best Sunshine can now put job ads “in the newspapers” to fill in the vacancies, Brown said.

He said the 500 initial employees for the training facility will then be integrated into the manpower pool of a 250-room hotel that Best Sunshine will put up in a property adjacent to DFS.

According to Brown, the 250-room hotel is just “Phase 1” of the integrated resort plan. Phase 1, Brown said, is “one year and a half away” from being constructed.

The executive disclosed that Best Sunshine will be paying qualified employees a competitive base rate of $7.25 per hour for the training facility.

He said part of the training facility is dedicated to an actual casino game floor simulation and security systems. Training for other critical areas will also be conducted in the Garapan facility.

Support

The decision to approve the Best Sunshine facility is also being supported by the business community.

Alex Sablan, who heads the Saipan Chamber of Commerce as president, said the Chamber “welcomes the development.”

Sablan, in an interview, said, “People need to be trained” as far as the casino industry is concerned and that the 500 job vacancies is a “good sign.”

The executive said he is not familiar with the unemployment rate in the Commonwealth, but hiring a few hundred is a “good start” and will surely help address the islands’ unemployment issue.