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Hotel investor eyeing Hopwood lot
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Posted on Mar 10 2006
An international luxury hotel company wants to use the Hopwood Junior High School property as the location of a new hotel on Saipan.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, who met with businessmen in Japan last week, reported that Okura Hotels and Resorts is eyeing Hopwood as the site for its new hotel.
“They [Okura] have been eyeing the Hopwood property since 12-13 years ago. But I don’t have a place to relocate Hopwood,” Fitial said. “We could relocate Hopwood to Koblerville, but then it would be very close to Saipan Southern High School.”
Fitial added, however, that the planned relocation would not be done without proper consultation with Hopwood personnel and the parents of students at the middle school.
Okura operates 23 hotels, with a total of 7,440 rooms, throughout Japan and in Korea, China, Hawaii, Guam, and The Netherlands.
Fitial also reported that Yamaha Corp. had expressed interest in building a resort on Saipan. Yamaha, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of musical instruments, also operates resort facilities throughout Japan.
Furthermore, the governor said that Filipino business tycoon Henry Sy was interested in building a mall at Lower MIHA, where the Garapan Elementary School is situated.
Proposals have been made to relocate Garapan Elementary School to give way to the extension of Garapan’s business district.
Last month, the House of Representatives has adopted a resolution endorsing the use of undeveloped public lands north of the Commonwealth Health Center as a new location for the elementary school.
The lawmakers had noted that the site would make an ideal location for the currently overcrowded school.
“Since the Public School System is planning to build additional Head Start Program classrooms and new schools and to renovate school facilities, it would be best to invest in a new facility instead of trying to renovate the existing structure to meet the growing demands of the student population,” the resolution had pointed out.
