Global brand also for Coral Ocean Point

South Korean investment giant E Land announced yesterday plans for a global hotel brand also for Coral Ocean Point Resort Club, which claims a 101-percent hotel room occupancy in February for 80 renovated rooms so far, just weeks after starting to accept hotel guests once more on Dec. 29. The target date for completion of COP’s $4.4-million renovation is in May.

This comes four days after E Land’s Micronesia Resort Inc. announced that the former The Palms Resort in San Roque will reopen under global brand Sheraton or Hilton. They will announce the decision late next week.

Tae Ho Kim, chief operating officer of E Land’s MRI, also announced plans for the construction of at least 200 new hotel rooms that could start in early 2015.

Kim, through MRI senior hotel development manager and Coral Ocean Point operation manager Dennis Seo, who served as the English interpreter, also presented E Land’s planned development of Mediterranean-type villages that include a Tuscan villa community, an Andalusia pool villa, and luxury cliff villa, depending on regulatory approval.

These are all part of what E Land previously announced as a $40 million, multi-year investment plan for the property.

After the news briefing at Coral Ocean Point yesterday, Kim and Seo were on their way to Japan and Korea to meet with prospective global brand partners for Coral Ocean Point.

Kim asked the CNMI to put its trust in E Land, which he said is a genuine part of the South Korea conglomerate.

“One misunderstanding is that E Land is not real E Land. We are real E Land,” Kim said, adding that they want to focus more on developing the property and show their commitment to help the CNMI tourism economy grow.

Reopened hotel

Coral Ocean Point reopened its doors to hotel guests on Dec. 29, E Land officials said as they gave the media and some visitors a tour yesterday of the different types of renovated rooms, including what they call “ocean view de luxe” and “Tinian ocean executive de luxe.”

The bathrooms were far more luxurious than they were before, and the interiors are now more in keeping with the island vibe mixed with luxury—from bed linens used in 5-star hotels in Korea to fire-resistant curtains for guests’ safety, officials explained.

The group also showed the ongoing renovation of the main building and swimming pool, as well as the especially designed tent-and-steel golf cart storage area.

First-floor rooms, however, were renovated reusing the former Palms Resort’s carpets that are still in good condition. Officials said this is because many of the guests staying at these rooms are golf players that need carpet floors. The second-floor rooms have tiled floors. Officials said they were mostly from the former Palms Resort’s executive suites.

Kim acknowledged hearing comments from some community members about the reuse of the carpets but he said the carpets are in good condition. He said they plan to replace the reused carpets if hotel guests complain about them. Moreover, they said they are on tight timeline so redoing the whole floors would eat up precious time.

Some television stands in the rooms were also refinished.

Ted Jung, sales and marketing executive for Coral Ocean Point, said the hotel occupancy at Coral Ocean Point’s 80 renovated hotel rooms was 10 percent for three days in December, 50 percent in January, 101 percent in February, and the reservation forecast for March is also 101 percent. Jung and COP human resources manager Bertha Leon Guerrero led the tour of the renovated facilities.

Jung said hotel guests are from Japan, China, Korea, and other markets.

E Land continues its renovation on the 10 executive suites and three other especially designed suites. COP has a total of 193 rooms.

Jung said Pacific Islands Club will also undergo renovations.

E Land is also vying for a public land near its other property in San Antonio, but the Department of Public Lands has yet to decide between E Land’s MRI and Hong Kong-based Honest Profit that were shortlisted in DPL’s request for proposals.

The RFP is for the lease of the San Antonio public land for the development of a new hotel with at least 200 rooms.

They said if they have all three properties within minutes of each other, they could share the facilities among three hotels such as the 18-hole, PGA-qualified golf course at Coral Ocean Point and PIC’s water park.

“We would like to create synergy among the hotels,” Kim added.

Coral Ocean Point’s golf course, golf shop, and restaurant have been in operation all this time. Coral Ocean Point sits on a 735,023-square meter property at Agingan Point in the southern part of Saipan.