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Renovation of garment factory will complete $550K housing project
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Posted on Jan 29 2016
With construction workers for Best Sunshine International, Ltd.’s casino project already occupying a renovated former garment factory barracks building in Tanapag, the company wants to renovate the fourth building of the defunct factory to house more workers.
Roger Pich, project manager for Castle Projects (CNMI) LLC, told Saipan Tribune yesterday that they are planning to renovate Building B of the former Top Fashion Factory and barracks.
At Building B, Castle Projects will renovate the structure for a total of 32 units, including “supervisor units,” with communal bathrooms.
Pich said Castle Projects first renovated Building D, then C, and just completed A last month.
Pich disclosed that Building D is already occupied by Chinese workers for the Best Sunshine casino project in Garapan.
He said he just got the job as project manager so he is not sure when the workers moved in and how many they are.
Castle Projects is applying for a conditional use permit with the Commonwealth Zoning Board for the existing dormitory renovation.
The Zoning Board, chaired by Diego C. Blanco, was set late afternoon yesterday to hold a public hearing on Castle Projects’ request for conditional use application.
Last October, the Zoning Board approved the conditional use application of Castle Project to renovate the existing three warehouse structures formerly used by Top Fashion as a barracks for their employees.
With a site area of 15,000 square meters along Chalan Pale Arnold, Castle Project’s renovation and restoration of the four buildings to create 136 housing units have an estimated budget of $550,000.
Attorney Michael Dotts, counsel for Castle Projects, told Saipan Tribune during the Zoning Board’s hearing last October, that the dormitories would initially be used to house male construction workers, but the units will be later used to house hotel workers as the project “will move with the flow.”
Dotts said the reality is that there is a shortage of housing on Saipan so the company’s project will meet the housing shortage.
