The Department of Public Lands is constitutionally prohibited from entering into a new lease with Kan Pacific, Ltd. for its Mariana Resort and Spa property, according to DPL Secretary Pete A. Tenorio in a letter to Kan Pacific president Yoshihiro Kitami on Monday, emphasizing that Kan Pacific\u2019s 40-year lease must expire and that no resolution passed by the Legislature could bind DPL to negotiate a renewal of the lease.<\/p>\n
DPL announced in June this year its decision to seek competitive bids for the Mariana Resort property, despite hotel officials alleging they had received assurances from DPL for a new lease. In July, Rep. Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan) filed House Resolution 19-29, \u201cencouraging the administration and the secretary of Public Lands to negotiate a new lease [for] Kan Pacific Saipan, Ltd.\u201d<\/p>\n
When contacted last night, Mariana Resort general manager Gloria Cavanagh declined to comment, saying the matter is now with their legal counsel.<\/p>\n
Saipan Tribune also tried to obtain comments from Sablan but he said he will issue his official comments today.<\/p>\n
In his letter Monday, Tenorio chose to share his thoughts on the legislative resolution with Kitami, noting \u201cseveral misconceptions in the resolution.\u201d Tenorio did not elaborate.<\/p>\n
Tenorio said DPL is prohibited from granting a \u201cnew lease to Kan Pacific\u201d until such time that the public land and improvements that Kan Pacific is currently leasing automatically reverts to the government upon the natural expiration of the current lease of 25 years with its 15-year extension for a total of 40 years.<\/p>\n
The Kan Pacific lease expires on April 30, 2018.<\/p>\n
Tenorio said 40 years is the \u201cmaximum leasehold period allowed by the CNMI Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo additional extension or new lease is specifically authorized by the Constitution,\u201d Tenorio said. \u201cAnd a resolution by our Legislature supporting or \u2018encouraging\u2019 the administration and DPL\u201d for a new lease \u201ccould not bind DPL\u201d to enter into one.<\/p>\n
Tenorio said the Constitution mandates that after the expiration of 40 years of a public land lease like Kan Pacific\u2019s, all public land, together with all improvements \u201creverts to the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
At such time, Tenorio explained, DPL has two options: one, to negotiate a second lease with the lessee who previously owned the land, or two, put the land out to bid \u201cto assure others the opportunity to submit proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026in the interest of transparency, an RFP is in order,\u201d Tenorio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that you fully appreciate the requirement of the CNMI Constitution with the respect of leasing of public lands,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Tenorio pointed out it is the responsibility of every public land lessee to \u201cfully understand our CNMI Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless the Constitution is amended, DPL has no option but to strictly adhere to its constitutional mandate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kan Pacific\u2019s Mariana Resort has been on island for 37 years and is seeking a new lease with a commitment of some $30 million in added investment. The hotel is seen as an important link to a dwindling Japanese tourism market in the CNMI, and has recently been pumping out full page ads and radio advertisements on its commitment to the community in light of the DPL decision.<\/p>\n
Last month, Mariana Resort general manager Gloria Cavanagh said there was concern as to whether the fate of their establishment would be subject to a process that is \u201cimproper and unfair.\u201d Cavanagh was responding to reports of \u201csecret\u201d meetings between DPL, lawmakers, and with Best Sunshine Ltd., a potential bidder of the Marpi property that is seeking to complete a billion-dollar project to build an integrated casino resort on Saipan.<\/p>\n
DPL\u2019s decision is a policy call by the administration of Gov. Eloy S. Inos to bid out existing public land leases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Public Lands is constitutionally prohibited from entering into a new lease with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[175,5770,368,2331],"class_list":["post-212833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-dpl","tag-kan-pacific-saipan","tag-mariana-resort","tag-public-lands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212833","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}