Bridge Capital seeks extension to QC requirements
Officials from Bridge Capital, LLC, are asking the Commonwealth Development Authority to extend until the end of 2009 the requirements the company must meet in order to receive tax breaks and incentives under the qualifying certificate program.
The deadline for Bridge Capital to meet the requirements in their QC application is currently February 2009.
Bridge Capital, a financial services company specializing in real estate acquisition, development, financing, and corporate lending, has been looking at properties and existing buildings on Saipan to house their headquarters. The company has been in negotiations with the owners of the former Plumeria Hotel, but environmental concerns are delaying a closing date.
“Aside from the usual and customary terms regarding title issues, price, closing dates, etc., the late-raised question of the environmental status of the Plumeria has caused some serious problems in obtaining an executed PSA [purchase and sale agreement] and setting a proposed closing date,” Bridge Capital vice president and chief legal counsel Richard Pipes wrote in a letter to CDA executive officer Oscar Camacho.
Pipes, along with other Bridge Capital officials, presented the letter at CDA’s recent board of directors meeting.
“It seems unfortunate that when we would clear a hurdle on one problem related to the Plumeria, we would unfortunately come right into another one,” Pipes told the board.
The Environmental Protection Agency and Division of Environmental Quality has issued several citations to Plumeria since 1999 on a storage tank that is located under the parking lot on the property. Until 2005 or 2006, Plumeria stored diesel in the tank for its generator before moving the fuel to storage barrels on site. But the discontinuation, according to Pipes, has left some issues.
“As I’m sure you’re all aware [of], environmental liability when you acquire a property can just be enormous, if you are getting into a situation where someone has contaminated the soil,” he said. “Even if you don’t know about it, you can be liable for it because you acquired the property and didn’t conduct the proper types of investigation.”
Bridge Capital, which is temporarily located at the Marianas Heights Business Plaza, is also pursuing other properties and existing buildings, the officials said.
Pipes said the company is about to make an offer on another project that would satisfy the company’s capital contribution requirement portion of the QC. He did not want to name the property for fear it might affect negotiations, although officials did say that one property is a two-story building located in Garapan.
Pipes, in his letter to CDA’s Camacho, said Bridge continues to be happy they moved their operations to the CNMI.
“We enjoy the islands, the people, the culture, the beauty and the living conditions found here. Both Bridge and its employees strive to contribute to the CNMI’s quality of life by supporting the local economy and participating in local business and civic affairs. We look forward to many years of working with the CDA and doing what we can to make life a little better for the people of the CNMI,” Pipes wrote.
The Investment Incentive Act of 2000 established the qualifying certificate program, authorizing the granting of rebates and/or abatements of up to one 100 percent for a period of up to 25 years to qualified investors.
