Long before sale, Rota Resort owners sought DPL’s help

As early as June this year, the owners of the Rota Resort and Country Club urged the Department of Public Lands to help them close a deal to sell the 600-acre complex, a crucial element in the health of the island’s struggling tourism industry, in order to keep it open.

In a June 6 letter to Public Lands Secretary John S. Del Rosario, a copy of which was obtained by the Saipan Tribune, Michinori Matsumura, executive president of SNM Corp., the resort’s previous owner, wrote that he had engaged in a “stock purchase agreement” to transfer “100%” of his company’s shares in the resort to Rota Resort, LLC, its new owner—a branch of the Guam-based firm JMSH LLC. Rota Resort LLC took control of the resort in August, according to its management.

Matsumura asked in the letter for DPL’s “immediate assistance and cooperation to help assure the economic viability” of the resort, adding the transaction “must be closed urgently by July” and that under the conditions of its government lease, his company needed the department’s approval.

“Unless by July, 2008, this transfer is closed to have the new sponsor infused [sic] the new money, RRCC will find itself in short of operating money only to face the closing of RRRC,” the letter said.

Moreover, the letter pointed to a recently begun deal to bring chartered airline service to Rota from Japan, which the resort initiated through its business partners, saying that the flights could not take place if the resort closed.

The letter appears to undermine language in a recently issued order by the CNMI Attorney General’s Office that said government officials were merely aware of a “proposal” to sell the resort. The order, released earlier this month, pointed to a recent article in the Saipan Tribune on the sale and said that if the report is accurate, the resort’s new owners failed to obtain government approval before buying it and might be trespassing on public lands.

The order adds that if this is the case, the new owners must vacate the property. Del Rosario and other DPL officials were not immediately available for comment on the letter at press time.

However, Sen. Paul Manglona (R-Rota) said the letter is a clear indication that DPL was aware of the deal long before it was complete.

“They cannot now pretend that the new company is not there in good faith,” he said in an interview.

The future success of Rota’s struggling tourism economy, he added, is largely tied to the survival of the resort and the plans its new owners have to draw tourists to the island through chartered flight deals.

“The last thing anyone expected was for this administration to write a letter to a major investor on Rota telling him to shut down,” he said. “Where is the fairness in this?”

Charles Reyes, spokesman for Gov. Benigno Fitial, previously said the intent behind the Attorney General’s Office order was simply to enforce the law.