BSI-linked company acquires Vestcor Village
A company associated with Saipan casino investor Best Sunshine International, Ltd. acquired a property in the CNMI, a business move that leaves most of the current tenants only about a month to look for new homes.
Vestcor Village, located in Isa Drive going up Capitol Hill, was recently sold to Colour Palace (CNMI) LLC, a company linked to BSI.
In an interview, prior manager Frank Stroh confirmed the sale to Saipan Tribune and said that it was closed on March 11—the same day as termination notices were given out.
“The previous owner of Vestcor resides in the mainland. Negotiations with Best Sunshine have been long term with no knowledge of when a sale may take place,” Stroh said.
Stroh said Vestcor is currently at around 90 percent occupancy with most of their tenants on a month-to-month lease.
“The new company, Colour Palace, has issued 30-day termination notices. Consideration of extending that time can be given by the new owner only,” Stroh said.
Asked why Vestcor has decided to sell the property, Stroh said, “The information of any sale is confidential between seller and buyer.”
A copy of the notices given to residential tenants last Friday, March 11, was obtained by Saipan Tribune.
It informed residents about the selling of the property and stated that Colour Palace is now the landlord of the current tenants.
“Colour Palace will exercise its options, when they become available upon closing, to terminate all existing residential leases,” the notice stated.
The notice stated that rent checks must now be made payable to East Gain Property Management, Inc. East Gain Global (CNMI) Ltd. was linked to the sale of Flame Tree Terrace last year.
Colour Palace
Called for comments, Colour Palace’s authorized representative and who will act as the overall manager for Vestcor, Alice Abueme, told Saipan Tribune to contact the main office, which she said was BSI.
According to the CNMI Department of Commerce, Colour Palace was registered April 6, 2015, with former Northern Marianas College president Carmen Fernandez listed as its registered agent.
The phone number registered for Colour Palace was also a BSI office number.
When called, BSI’s legal department said that Colour Palace is indeed under BSI, however, legal counsel Viola Alepuyo, in a separate call, said she doesn’t have information on the matter.
Other emails sent to BSI were also unanswered as of press time.
Homeless
Due to the sale, several tenants are worried about where they will find new homes especially since there has been a shortage of available units on Saipan since the rise of developments as well as the destruction of Typhoon Soudelor.
A tenant who declined to be named commented that it was how the sale and the notices were made that were bothersome as they will have to move out of their homes in the middle of the month.
A tenant noted that no prior announcements were made regarding the sale and it was only through the 30-day notice that they were informed that they would have to move out.
Saipan Tribune learned that there are also BSI employees currently residing on Vestcor that will also be kicked out of their homes.
According to its website, Vestcor Village is located on 20,000 square meters of land and still has a 3,500-square meter parcel available for further development.
The village consists of 60 apartments in 15 buildings—58 two bedroom-one bath apartments and two three bedroom-two bath apartments. It has a commercial building with 10 deluxe offices and one mini-brewery building with an adjacent restaurant, a 4,000-square-foot retail store, a 2,720-square-foot warehouse, a 2,720-square-foot employee barracks, including two single apartments, among other features and amenities such as a playground and swimming pool.
1. The notice was given out to tenants at 9:30 pm that Friday evening in order to make it effective that day, and most of the notices were just left on doors because the “management” who have “no spine” attempted try and avoid any angry tenants. 2. “Month to Month” tenants? When leases ended, the landlord took it in himself to neglect renewing the leases and just let them continue on as “Month to Month”.
This is heartbreaking, I feel for these tenants! I, myself is a home-renter so I wholeheartedly can sympathize with this situation!
However, I don’t think BSI should be the one to blame. BSI may have acquired the property but they couldn’t have done it by themselves. There is another person that comes to play, which is the LANDLORD. Therefore, I encourage all tenants to go through their contracts and see if there is a clause that protects them. Some contracts may state that tenants are not allowed to be “kicked out” for a certain time period.
It seems like BSI and their partners are taking over the rental market, but this is not a bad thing at all in my opinion. This is only a sign of growth in the market for apartments and housing. I foresee other investors taking note and creating more apartments and housing, which will benefit all of us.
now i’m thinking maybe i should put my mom and dad’s house for rent. nobody is staying there and no one has been interested in renting it for a while because of the price. with all these apartment complexes being bought out, i can expect there will be customers now.
That may be a short term income for you, but best think, as what you stated that about the rental price.
If you rent this place at a high price, be careful, most likely one family will rent it and then bring in more families to share the rent. Your house will be destroyed in short time. Especially if it is a nice home.
In past I have been contracted to renovate and repair many homes that this has happened to. This even happens on cheaper rentals. Take a look at all the low income housing.
BTW my friend rented his home to a Senator and that house was really destroyed when they got it back..
Even a court order will not get you any money back in the NMI. Good luck. Maybe just sell it to BS.
We’ve invited in the Trojan Horse. When do we say enough is enough and send them packing? End the visa waiver NOW