The Department of Public Lands intends to recommend to the Legislature to grant Coral Ocean Point\u2019s proposed 15-year extension of its land lease, but DPL secretary Oscar M. Babauta said yesterday they will wait for the end of the public comment period on Aug. 10 before making a decision to endorse such extension.<\/p>\n
The final decision to grant Coral Ocean Point\u2019s proposed lease extension lies not with DPL but with the Legislature.<\/p>\n
However, DPL\u2019s recommendation is needed before such an extension is even brought to the Legislature for consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are currently reviewing Coral Ocean Point\u2019s submission. Part of the review is the public comment period which ends on Aug. 10,\u201d Babauta told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
Suwaso Corp., which owns and operates Coral Ocean Point in Unai Dangkulu near the Saipan international airport, is proposing a 15-year extension to its 25-year lease, which is expiring in August 2011.<\/p>\n
Even before DPL\u2019s public comment period expires, the Senate had already adopted on Thursday a resolution asking DPL to work with Coral Ocean Point \u201con a reasonable public land lease extension.\u201d<\/p>\n
DPL has put out a public notice in the newspaper on Suwaso Corp.\u2019s proposed lease extension involving Lot No. 011 L 01 in an area measuring 735,023 square meters for Coral Ocean Point.<\/p>\n
Copies of the location of the parcel and the proposed lease extension agreements are available at the DPL office for inspection.<\/p>\n
The lessee, Suwaso Corp., is a CNMI corporation whose board of directors consists of Yusuke Fumoto, Vincent DLG. Torres, and Philip Mendiola-Long. Fumoto is also the president and treasurer of the corporation, while Torres is the vice president, and Mendiola-Long is the secretary.<\/p>\n
DPL will be accepting public comments on the proposed lease extension up to Aug. 10.<\/p>\n
[B]$42 million revitalization plan[\/B]<\/p>\n
Suwaso Corp., purchased by new owners this month, has prepared a \u201cCoral Ocean Point Golf Revitalization Plan\u201d which includes a $15 million investment to build 200 additional hotel rooms and to renovate and upgrade existing golf resort facilities and golf courses plus a $7 million investment for operational funding for a total of $22 million in investments for Phase I.<\/p>\n
Phase II of the revitalization plan will cost $20 million.<\/p>\n
This includes $4 million for alternative energy to convert the hotel and golf course to the use of solar and wind power, $10 million to build a convention center and outdoor city street, and $6 million to renovate and transform the hotel spa and pool into a 6-star spa management.<\/p>\n
Coral Ocean Point currently employs 57 people. But the revitalization plan includes creating 180 new jobs. <\/p>\n
It also commits to funding indigenous art programs, education programs and social programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Public Lands intends to recommend to the Legislature to grant Coral Ocean Point\u2019s proposed 15-year extension of its land lease, but DPL secretary Oscar M. Babauta said yesterday they will wait for the end of the public comment period on Aug. 10 before making a decision to endorse such extension.<\/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-153880","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\/153880","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=153880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}