Gov. Benigno Fitial approved a Korean firm\u2019s plans to build a multi-million dollar resort on Saipan\u2019s beachfront Friday, signing a provisional lease that now requires approval from local lawmakers.<\/p>\n
In a press conference, Fitial and Department of Public Lands Secretary John S. Del Rosario presented plans for the Flame Sako Resort and Spa with Kang Dae Sik, the resort\u2019s president. The plans call for a 9-floor, 357-room resort on 10 hectares of land on a site north of Palms Resort Saipan. The project carries an estimated price tag of $50 million to $60 million, Del Rosario said. <\/p>\n
Next week, Fitial plans to meet with staff at local government agencies on the project and how to move it ahead quickly. Due to the size of the property, he added, the lease will require approval from the Legislature. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re ready to support Mr. Kang and the Flame Sako,\u201d Fitial said. <\/p>\n
Speaking through a translator, Kang said the company plans to move forward with the project as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are really happy and we appreciate you time and concern,\u201d Kang said. \u201cWe will work to start this project here on Saipan.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Del Rosario, the construction project will move forward in phases and the Sako investors have put forward the initial financing necessary for the first part of the deal and the administrative costs linked to it.<\/p>\n
The new resort plans come after DPL last month canceled a lease with Win DNC, a company that also had plans to build a resort in the same area as the Sako proposal. DPL said the company had violated its lease and failed to provide the necessary \u201cgood faith\u201d financing for the project. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Benigno Fitial approved a Korean firm\u2019s plans to build a multi-million dollar resort on Saipan\u2019s beachfront Friday, signing a provisional lease that now requires approval from local lawmakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}