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CRM board approves 114 more rooms for Grand Mariana
Regulatory agencies on Wednesday voted to approve the Saipan casino’s request to increase the height of its Grand Mariana Casino Resort project by 119 hotel rooms.
The casino estimates the increase to cost $25 million, increasing the total construction cost of their gambling and hotel venue to $190 million.
The permit amendment increases the number of rooms from the previous permitted 254 to a total of 373, and follows earlier approval from the CNMI Zoning Board to raise the height of the casino resort to 14 stories.
According to its request for this permit amendment in April, the casino, Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC, explained the modifications due to “construction related issues and site constraints” that had them raise the foundation pile caps, resulting in increases to the height of their building.
Three beach villas were also removed from the overall plan, according to the April 14 request to the CNMI Division of Coastal Resources Management.
“The primary reason driving this amendment request is business related. [Imperial Pacific] is planning to manage the Grand Mariana Casino and Resort complex, and it is important from a business perspective that additional resort management options are available. With a previously permitted room number of 254, the project fell short of the minimum number of 350 rooms that would make the proposed resort complex attractive to experienced world class hotel and resort management companies,” said Imperial Pacific CEO Mark Brown in the April request.
Brown adds that their architects and engineers were tasked to increase their hotel rooms “without altering the basic project footprint” to address their business problem.
The new plans add another corridor of hotel rooms along a planned tower hotel on the “above-grade floors,” or from the third to 14th floor.
Original design plans had one wing of rooms with an ocean view but the new plans now has additional 119 rooms with a mountain view, Brown says.
