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DPL terminates lease for planned Win DnC hotel
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Posted on Jul 31 2008
The Department of Public Lands has terminated its lease agreement with Win DnC, a Korean company, on a tract of land in Marpi where it had proposed to build a multi-million dollar hotel, citing the company’s failure to pay debts, obtain insurance and provide financing in “good faith” for the project.
In a July 24 letter to Younjai Kim, president of Win DnC, Public Lands Secretary John DelRosario Jr. disclosed that the company has “violated the lease and now has failed to cure the defaults,” adding it has 15 days to remove any property from the 49,459 square meter site near the Palms Resort before the department regains control of it.
Win DnC had a 25-year lease agreement with an option to extend the terms by 15 years, according a notice of the lease. The annual rental was based on a percentage of the appraised fair market value of the property, which was to be the site of a $200 to $300 million hotel with hundreds of rooms.
Yet DelRosario in an interview Thursday noted Win DnC never supplied the $1 million “good faith” investment it was required to make in a local bank, a sign the company’s commitment to the project was weak.
“We want investors of substance,” DelRosario said, adding the CNMI needs investment that can ensure local “wealth and job creation.”
In addition to failing to provide the necessary investment, DelRosario notes in his letter and a previous Jan. 9 statement that Win DnC never submitted information on its liability insurance or financing to the department, nor has it paid more than $24,000 in debts owed to the government.
“With this lease agreement officially terminated, future plans between Win DnC Co., Ltd and the Department of Public Lands are null and void,” the letter said. “DPL can no long accommodate [the company’s] proposals for the public property and those adjacent to it.”
Neither Kim nor any other official with Win DnC could be reached for comment at press time.
