Pacific Gardenia remains open to work with CDA

The owners of Pacific Gardenia Hotel are working aggressively to resolve the hotel’s financial woes to ensure that it remains a profitable business venture.

Pacific Gardenia president Ron Sablan said the hotel and its two restaurants continue to remain open to serve customers.

“We want to assure our friends, customers and business partners that we care a great deal about the future of the hotel, our employees and in meeting all our obligations. So far, we have been able to make arrangements in resolving most of our obligations and we are working hard to return the business to good financial health,” said Sablan.

Sablan also said that he remains open to working with the Commonwealth Development Authority on any of the agency’s concerns if given the opportunity.

Pacific Gardenia has submitted, for CDA’s consideration, several proposals to resolve its financial obligations with the agency, but it has yet to meet with either of the management and board of directors of CDA.

“We have made several requests, both verbally and in writing, to meet with the board. Unfortunately, our efforts to work out a mutual solution to resolve this matter have not been answered,” said Sablan.

Pacific Gardenia has enjoyed a good working relationship with CDA in the 18 years that the hotel has been in business. However, it has been difficult for the hotel owners to sustain Pacific Gardenia’s profitability, which suffered following the Asian financial crisis in 1997, which that resulted in a decline in local tourist numbers.

“We’ve enjoyed a good relationship with CDA and we even received favorable marks when they did a management audit by an independent party some time ago. It has been tough since about 1997 when tourism started to decline, but the industry is picking up slowly and we’re running the business honestly and as best we can, even making great personal sacrifices to get the hotel back on its feet,” said Sablan.

Sablan said his one regret was that CDA had put out a very damaging publicity even before privately discussing the matter with all the owners or even conducting an investigation into allegations.

“It seems unfortunate that perhaps some differences among former members of the management team might have interfered in CDA’s confidence in the business. There might even have been some personal or political motives at play. Our reputation among our customers is important to us and bad publicity never helps. However, I believe we can put this past us and move on to resolve any issues,” said Sablan.

Located in Chalan Kanoa, the Pacific Gardenia first opened in 1986 and was Saipan’s first locally-owned hotel. The company operates a hotel, restaurant, conference and banquet facilities, and beach bar and grill, which is one of the island’s favorite local entertainment spots overlooking the sunset and Saipan lagoon.