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E Land’s MRI accepts offer to extend COP land lease
E Land’s Micronesia Resort Inc. told the Department of Public Lands that it is interested in extending its Coral Ocean Point land lease for “an additional 25 to 40 years, subject to legal and legislative consideration.”
This is in response to DPL Secretary Pete A. Tenorio’s March 17 letter encouraging MRI to start exploring the possibility of extending its present COP land lease for an additional 25 years.
The current lease is not expiring until 2026, however.
Tae Ho Kim, general manager of Coral Ocean Point/Suwaso Corp., responded to Tenorio’s letter on March 26.
“We look forward to meeting and discussing with you future outlooks and different potentials in the improvements of our existing hotel facilities,” Kim told Tenorio in a one-page letter, copies of which were also sent to the Legislature last week.
Other hotels with only a few years left on their public land leases have already been considering lease extensions. Those include Mariana Resort & Spa, Hyatt Regency Saipan, Fiesta Resort & Spa, and Kanoa Resort.
Suwaso Corp.’s majority owner is the South Korean-based giant E Land, through Micronesian Resort Inc.
Tenorio’s letter also acknowledges Suwaso’s update on future improvements specified in the amended lease extension agreement of Dec. 12, 2011, along with renovation projects that Suwaso and DPL agreed to be pursued “in the interim period prior to your major improvements under the lease.”
COP is undergoing a $4-million renovation, and is also looking at bringing a global hotel brand for its facility. This comes shortly after E Land also announced that another of its hotel on Saipan, the former The Palms Resort in San Roque, will reopen under the global hotel brand Sheraton.
