NMC gives up on La Fiesta

Financial problems have finally driven the Northern Marianas College to wash its hands of the La Fiesta shopping mall.

Yesterday, the NMC Board of Regents approved a proposal by the college management to transfer ownership of La Fiesta to the CNMI government and have the Executive Branch assume operation of the facility.

This proposal remains subject, however, to the concurrence of the governor and the mall’s owners—Hotel Nikko Saipan and Coco’s Lagoon Development Corp.

Yet, NMC president Antonio Deleon Guerrero announced that NMC officials will meet with Gov. Juan N. Babauta and Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente at 3:30pm Monday to sign a memorandum of agreement for the transfer.

“The main driving force behind this proposal is [NMC’s lack of] financial resources to continue maintaining La Fiesta. As you know, the CNMI government has more resources than we do,” Deleon Guerrero said in an interview after yesterday’s special meeting.

He stressed the urgency of having the agreement executed, noting that the Governor’s Office has committed to reimburse NMC for La Fiesta’s operational costs until Sept. 30 only.

“We want this MOA to be signed as soon as possible so that by Sept. 30, we can close our books and write off La Fiesta,” he said.

NMC finance director Raaj Kurapati said the mall’s operation costs an average of $120,000 a month.

The transfer, however, does not mean the end of NMC’s involvement with La Fiesta. One of the provisions of the draft memorandum states that, should NMC come up with plans to utilize La Fiesta, the college can lease the facility or portions of the facility from the CNMI government for a nominal fee of $1 per year.

“We just don’t have the funds to operate La Fiesta right now. And we’re not getting the support that we need from the Legislature to get additional funding for the operations,” said Board of Regents chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds.

Another factor that drove the college to give up responsibility over La Fiesta was concerns raised by the San Francisco-based Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which has placed NMC’s accreditation on warning status.

“WASC is concerned about the fact that we’re spending a lot of time and using our own people who have primary duties and responsibilities in running [the Fina Sisu] campus to look into and explore ways to keep the [La Fiesta] facility up and running,” King-Hinds said. “And so, [La Fiesta] is a burden on staff morale; it’s a financial drain on the institution.”

Deleon Guerrero said the proposed transfer of La Fiesta to the Commonwealth government has the unanimous support of policy-making bodies within the college. These include the College Council, Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, and the Associated Students of NMC.

“I think it’s a good idea,” NMC history instructor Sam McPhetres said of the board’s decision. “NMC is unable to maintain La Fiesta. It’s bleeding the college dry. It only makes sense to get rid of the responsibility until something can be done with [the property].”

According to Deleon Guerrero, the proposal included findings of the La Fiesta Task Force and the La Fiesta Exploratory Team, the two bodies formed by Deleon Guerrero since his appointment as acting president earlier this year.

Last month, NMC also put out a request for proposals from individuals or groups interested in buying or utilizing La Fiesta. But while the college received various expressions of interest, no formal proposals have been submitted until the deadline on Friday.

A visit to the La Fiesta yesterday showed the sorry state of the mall, with only a few shops open and even fewer tourists going around.