NMHC: Lower Mihaville to be sold as a whole

The Lower Mihaville estate will be sold as a whole—all 45 units together—and not as individual home units.

Jacob Muña, the Northern Marianas Housing Corp.’s office manager, said yesterday that the housing units in Lower Mihaville will be put up for lease or for sale but interested investors would have to purchase all 45 units altogether.

“We are still selling the 45 units in Lower Mihaville. We’re not selling them individually. We’re selling/leasing it as a whole,” he said.

In a previous article on the Saipan Tribune, NMHC corporate director Jesse Palacios said that the Lower Mihaville estate would be put up for sale or lease but did not clarify whether it would be as a whole or as individual units.

Muña added that a request for proposals will be issued soon but there is no exact date. “Once everything settles, we can put out the RFP,” he said.

The last issued RFP for the Lower Mihaville estates in Garapan was issued back in December 2017 and many came out to the pre-proposal meeting, but no one actually submitted a proposal.

Muña said the privately-owned units in the Lower Mihaville area, as well as the units that are still occupied by NMHC housing programs, will not be included in the units that will be put up for sale/lease.

“There are some properties in the Mihaville that are privately owned, but the other 45 abandoned units are ours,” he said.

The Lower Mihaville estate is only one of multiple properties that the corporation is putting up for sale or for lease.

According to Palacios, the corporation has already put up other properties for sale or lease in Kagman, Dandan, Tinian, and Rota.

“We’re making them available for both [sale or lease]. The one for lease is for those people who are not [of Northern Marianas descent] so if you’re not from here, you can still lease the property for 55 years, so we’re not limiting the ownership to NMDs. It’s for everyone,” said Palacios.

The properties that have already been put up for sale are the properties the corporation acquired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “For us to get our money back, we have to sell the properties,” he said.

All the properties that are up for sale or lease are residential, according to Palacios. “We don’t have vacant lands. They’ll have houses on them, but most are abandoned,” he said.

Palacios added that the properties that are up for sale or lease are properties that individuals have shown interest in.

“One of the other reasons we sell these properties is because people come to us and they show interest. …Whenever someone is interested, that’s when we actually try to sell it,” he said.
For more information, visit the NMHC office in Garapan.