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‘Over $50M to reopen COP’
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Posted on Jul 15 2019
The Coral Ocean Point Golf Resort, which is in ruins after sustaining extensive damage during Super Typhoon Yutu in October last year, would need over $50 million to reopen, according to an official of its parent company.
In an interview with E-Land Group chief executive officer Matthew Park last Saturday, he said that E-Land is looking at investing over $50 million to repairs Coral Ocean Point.
“If we have good condition with our government, maybe more than $50 million,” he said during Saturday’s third anniversary bash of Kensington Hotel Saipan, which is also owned by E-Land Group.
Park said E-Land aims to partially re-open COP by March 2020, focusing, first, on the golf course and the buildings that remain intact after Yutu.
“We’re going to open the golf course and the current buildings and we’re going to add more to the new buildings,” he said.
According to Saipan Tribune archives, the COP renovations started since early May.
Gloria Cavanagh, who leads the Hotel Association of the Northern Marianas Islands as chairwoman, said in a previous interview that the demolition of certain COP buildings has already started.
Because damage to some areas of the resort were so severe, they have to demolish many of the structures and build them from the ground up, she explained. However, areas like the lobby will not be demolished and will be brought back to its state prior to Yutu.
“We are going to bring it back to where it was originally. It was newly renovated in 2011 and it was still pretty new and it was gorgeous, especially the lobby area, so we’re planning to bring it back to that,” said Cavanagh, who is the general manager of Pacific Islands Club Saipan, a sister-hotel of Coral Ocean Point.
After the renovations, Cavanagh said that Coral Ocean Point will still be seeing the 200 additional rooms that were in the inventory before Yutu hit.
“We have to look at doing the other 200 rooms. We were at the point where it was already in the planning stages but, after the storm, we had to work on putting everything back in order first,” she said.
COP was one of the resorts on island that bore the brunt of Super Typhoon Yutu. It was forced to close down immediately following Yutu.
