Kan Pacific Saipan Ltd., the owners of the Mariana Resort and Spa, and the Department of Public Lands differ on their spin of a settlement reached between the government and Kan Pacific and Imperial Pacific International, owners of the Saipan casino, over the government\u2019s allegations that an agreement reached between the two investors in December was collusive and meant to eliminate competition in DPL\u2019s open bid for Marianas Resort lands.<\/p>\n
DPL, in a statement yesterday, maintains that the agreement was an attempt by Imperial Pacific, parent company of the Best Sunshine International, Ltd. to \u201celiminate competition in our RFP.\u201d The CNMI Office of Attorney General on Tuesday, in announcing the settlement, had said that they took \u201canti-competitive agreements seriously\u201d and would continue to pursue these claims whenever they arise.<\/p>\n
But Kan Pacific maintains that the case \u201chad had absolutely no merit whatsoever as to Kan Pacific,\u201d said Kan Pacific counsel Joseph Iacopino in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe DPL was essentially trying to claim that BSI was paying KPS to refrain from submitting a bid in relation to the RFP,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, Kan Pacific had no intention of bidding on the RFP. Instead of bidding, it had been Kan Pacific\u2019s intention to file a case in court to prevent the RFP process from taking place, largely on the basis that the DPL had represented and promised Kan Pacific that a subsequent lease was going to be issued to Kan Pacific. Kan Pacific wasn\u2019t in a financial position to submit a conforming bid even if it had wanted to. We fully expected to win that case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe DPL\u2019s claims were set forth in a complicated case involving multiple parties and multiple issues. Sometimes the cost of winning is much greater than the cost of settlement. Sometimes it just makes better economic sense to settle rather than suffer the expense and tribulation of litigation. Kan Pacific chose to just settle the case and move forward,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
DPL, for its part, said in their statement they were \u201cpleased\u201d to announce the resolution to the dispute.<\/p>\n
Among others, DPL also alleged that Kan Pacific\u2019s previous assignments and subleases of public land were void because Kan Pacific failed to comply with its lease and seek DPL\u2019s prior approval.<\/p>\n
DPL said that as part of the settlement, Kan Pacific represented that it did not have the financial ability to submit a proposal that was responsive to DPL\u2019s request for proposals.<\/p>\n
It said that in dismissing all claims brought in the lawsuit, Kan Pacific and Imperial Pacific agreed to $500,000 to DPL to resolve its claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover Kan Pacific agreed to terminate its lease early if the winning bidder under\u201d the RFP \u201crequests its lease to commence before Kan Pacific\u2019s natural expiration in 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n
December\u2019s Kan Pacific-Best Sunshine deal essentially provides that Kan Pacific will assign its remaining lease to the Saipan casino and will continue to operate the resort \u201cfor at least a year,\u201d the casino said in a statement then. The Kan Pacific lease expires in April 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cDPL is pleased to resolve this matter and to remove any barriers to completion of its RFP on time and without interference,\u201d said DPL Secretary Marianne Teregeyo yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis settlement reaps a significant reward for the Commonwealth, removes the threat of litigation by Kan Pacific to prevent award of a new lease to the winning bidder, and paves the way for DPL to begin collecting significantly higher rents for our public lands in Marpi as soon as July or August of this year,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kan Pacific Saipan Ltd., the owners of the Mariana Resort and Spa, and the Department…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[175,9661,3092,1252],"class_list":["post-227551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-dpl","tag-imperial-pacific-international","tag-kan-pacific","tag-rfp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227551","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=227551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}