{"id":227064,"date":"2016-05-05T06:06:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T20:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=227064"},"modified":"2016-05-05T06:06:14","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T20:06:14","slug":"acg-alters-1st-phase-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/acg-alters-1st-phase-project\/","title":{"rendered":"ACG \u2018alters\u2019 1st phase of project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ken<\/a>
Ken Lin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Alter City Group is looking at holding a groundbreaking ceremony in the next two months for their $1.2-billion casino resort project in Puntan Diablo Cove on Tinian. However, there will be changes to their project plan that they hope to submit to the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality soon.<\/p>\n

According to ACG managing director Ken Lin, they will no longer be building massive hotel complexes but instead have villa-type accommodations, at least for Phase 1 of their project, which comprises one-third of their entire property.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first phase has changed in terms of the massive hotel complex like what we originally provided. Now our first phase will mainly concentrate on villa-ish type hotel. We have to redefine our program. Rather than building the hotel, we want to build a resort,\u201d Lin said. <\/p>\n

Lin added that the all the villas will have 100 percent ocean view and that the architecture will be something that will look like it\u2019s \u201cgrown on the ground\u201d using natural materials such as wood and corals to enhance the simple but modern look. <\/p>\n

There will be about 300 units of villas with at least 1,500 rooms for ACG\u2019s planned Plumeria Casino and Golf Resort.<\/p>\n

The casino, which was earlier proposed to be on the ground floor of their hotel, will be in a separate area as one of the attractions or activities to do in the resort.<\/p>\n

With the amendments, Lin said they don\u2019t anticipate having a problem with their major citing permit that was approved last July. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be okay because first of all, our height is actually, instead of six or seven floors, now it\u2019s only one or two floors. Area did not change much,\u201d Lin said.<\/p>\n

Lin said they needed to \u201credefine\u201d their program after more careful consideration of their site as well as recent developments in the CNMI such as the upcoming casino on Saipan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe revisited that because we want to redefine the right program for us,\u201d Lin said, \u201cWe need to redefine our program to target a different clientele.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lin said they sought advice from various experts and weighed in on the advantages and disadvantages of the project and \u201cto define what will be the best program for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since one advantage that they have is their sprawling land, ACG said they have decided to go with the villas instead of rising complexes and they will be building a resort rather than a hotel.<\/p>\n

This will provide a different living style as they hope to be more family oriented as well. <\/p>\n

They will still have shopping areas, a waterpark, and golf area so that their resort will be \u201csomething where you can stay for three days and not go out.\u201d<\/p>\n

With these changes, Lin said the price tag of their development actually \u201cshoots up more\u201d rather than decreases. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo a developer time is money,\u201d Lin said, noting that with the changes, they might waste seven months on waiting for final designs, plans, and approvals.<\/p>\n

However, it will be better in the long run, according to Lin, as they will be able to build much faster and can get the casino up and running rather than wait for the hotel complex to finish. <\/p>\n

Lin also said that they will not open a temporary casino but a real casino so that it will already have a \u201cwow\u201d factor and will entice tourists to come back.<\/p>\n

ACG, despite being granted the casino license, stressed that the casino will have its own operators. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re not experts in casinos, we\u2019re experts in property development,\u201d Lin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCasino to us is just a facility,\u201d ACG chief executive officer Edvon Sze said. <\/p>\n

For now, ACG said they have started clearing parts of their 155 hectare-property and have pieces of equipment ready. However, they are still waiting on other permits such as earthmoving permits that they hope to get next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the process of getting the earthmoving permit,\u201d Sze said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a developer\u2019s point of view, we want the permit yesterday,\u201d Lin said, \u201cWe definitely urge to have the permit faster.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lin said that they want to hold a groundbreaking when the site is all clear and set to start construction\u2014which will commence hopefully this year. Phase 1 of ACG\u2019s Plumeria Casino and Golf Resort is expected to be finished in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Alter City Group is looking at holding a groundbreaking ceremony in the next two…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":227114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[6152,256,6122,6284],"class_list":["post-227064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-acg","tag-casino","tag-edvon-sze","tag-ken-lin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227064","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}