Palms Resort eyes housing development plan

As Palms Resort’s owners work to finalize a new management deal with a major international hotel chain and begin the early stages of designing a new spa complex, they are also eying plans to build a new housing development across the street.

In an interview Friday, Hiroyuki Saito, Palms Resort’s general manager, said the hotel has developed a master plan for the area surrounding its property that includes a housing development with its own self-contained electrical system and purified water supply, a move intended to draw tenants arriving from off-island locales.

“This island is very critical in terms of utilities needs like water,” said Saito. “Many of the Americans who come here are very uncomfortable with the situation.”

The solution, he added, is “a new type of residential housing, affordable residential housing” with its own utility systems that would also come with discounts for tenants on the use of the resort’s facilities across the street, such as its pool and spa.

“For us, it would create a stable revenue stream and for the residents, they would have the total amenities that they want,” he said.

And the pending federal takeover of local immigration rules could draw scores of government employees to the CNMI who might want the type of housing Palms Resort is planning to build.

“Speaking about the near future, as the federalization gets implemented next year, we’re pretty sure that a lot of federal immigration and labor staff from the states will come in and Saipan doesn’t have much to provide them in terms of pure water and 24-hour electricity,” he said. “I think this is what Saipan wants right now. We have to have a development that makes sense for the CNMI.”

Meanwhile, Saito said Palms Resort is planning to build a “spa park” on its grounds in a bid to attract more foreign tourists to the CNMI. The park would transform the resort’s botanical garden, adding a dozen Jacuzzis, natural rocks, and water features.

The spa plan comes as the resort is now talking with an as yet unnamed international hotel chain—rumored to be Hilton—on a management deal that would increase its profile by giving a major boost to its marketing campaign. Saito declined to comment on the deal.

However, to complete the deal, Saito said the resort’s staff is also planning other upgrades and renovations to meet the hotel chain’s standards and new federal regulations.