Another $30M resort investment could fizzle

Another planned investment to build a $30-million, 300-room condominium-hotel resort in San Antonio may have already fizzled over lack of continued interest and commitment from the investor more than a year after the Department of Public Lands granted it temporary authorization to enter the property for land clearing and survey, among other things.

At the same time, DPL is still awaiting submission of requirements from Sunshine 100 which plans to invest some $1 billion in a five-star hotel and high-rise residential and commercial condominium-resort in Marpi in 1 million square meters of public and private land.

Public Lands Secretary Oscar M. Babauta said DPL gave Pacific Investment and Development Corp.-previously Kevin International Corp.-30 days or until the end of this month to express continued interest in five hectares of land in San Antonio.

“We wrote a follow-up letter to Pacific Investment. If they are no longer interested in developing the site, we will move on to two other investors lined up and are interested in the same property,” Babauta told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

The same group of investors earlier expressed interest in investing over $11 million in Coral Ocean Point Hotel and Golf Course.

DPL granted the investor group in late 2010 a temporary authorization to allow it to enter a five-hectare property for land clearing, while the two parties are preparing for a formal lease agreement.

However, more than a year has passed since the granting of such temporary authorization and DPL said it has yet to receive requirements from Pacific Investment including its formal plan to develop the area, financial plan, and architectural and engineering design.

DPL also required the investor to make a one-year advance land lease payment before DPL signs a final land lease agreement, to avoid abandonment of the land lease which had happened a few times before.

Pacific Investment had planned to lease the same property where a Korean investor, KSA Corp., previously proposed to build a hotel with villas and condotels. The KSA project did not materialize, resulting in DPL’s termination of the public land lease in June 2008.

Sunshine 100

Acting governor Eloy S. Inos expressed high hopes for Sunshine 100’s investments in the CNMI, saying the investments could be $1 billion.

“Hopefully that thing will happen this year. It will be a big help to the CNMI economy,” Inos said, adding that the project will complement Saipan Air’s services.

DPL’s Babauta, for his part, said the four-phased project includes a five-star hotel in the former location of Far East Broadcasting overlooking the western coast of Saipan.

The project will also include high-rise residential and commercial condominiums targeting high-end markets.

The project area encompasses the site formerly leased by Flame Sako north of The Palms Resort all the way to Wing Beach and on to the former Far East Broadcasting location.