Casino firm to time groundbreaking with Tinian fiesta

Bridge Investment Group, LLC is looking at holding the groundbreaking for its Tinian Oceanview Resort and Condominiums sometime in early May to coincide with the island’s San Jose Fiesta.

This was confirmed yesterday by the company’s vice president for CNMI operations, Phillip Mendiola-Long, in an e-mail to the Saipan Tribune.

“We are looking at a fiesta (May 1-5) groundbreaking on Tinian. I should have a confirmation by mid-April,” he said. “We will be submitting our full set of plans to DPW [Department of Public Works] and CRM [Coastal Resources Management] for master site permits in the second week of April.”

Mendiola-Long said that Bridge Investment’s construction company, Tian Yuan Overseas Ltd, is currently working with the Department of Commerce to register as a foreign corporation operating in the CNMI.

“Once they are approved, they will be processing 20-30 labor contracts for their logistics team to prepare for the beginning of construction,” he said.

In addition, the Bridge Investment executive said that staff from their local architecture and engineering team, Herman Cabrera and Associates, will be traveling to China next week to conduct a final review and pick up the amended setup plans designed to meet all U.S. and CNMI codes.

The Tinian Oceanview Resort and Condominiums project is estimated to cost $40-$60 million. It includes plans to construct a 301-room hotel and casino resort on Tinian as well as 268 condominium rooms. It will be built on 75,000 square feet of land that the company has leased for 55 years.

Aside from Herman B. Cabrera and Associates, Bridge Investment has also contracted the office of Mailman & Kara; certified public accountant Bruce McMillan; Marianas Development Corp. as its grounds maintenance firm; Power Buildings International as its local construction firm; FPA Inc. for ground clearing; and Marianas Environmental Services to work on its master site permit, environmental study, and prepare its report for the Historic Preservation Office.

Bridge Investment is a company formed by U.S.-mainland based investors Erik F. Wang, Rudy Pamintuan, Howard Li, Ken Wong, Akshay Desai, and Rocky Li. The company said it has offices in five countries—Japan, Korea, China, U.S., and Russia.

Bridge Investment recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its 2,600-square-foot local office at the top floor of the Bank of Guam building on Tinian.

Mendiola-Long said that Bridge Investment spent quite a bit of money renovating the entire floor of the building. He opted not to disclose the actual cost of the project.

The Tinian headquarters houses seven different offices and includes a main conference room and a design site area for the company’s construction firm. The centerpiece of the design site area is a scale model of Bridge Investment’s Tinian Oceanview Resort and Condominiums project. The company leased the top floor of the BoG building from a local family on the island.