{"id":267794,"date":"2018-01-10T06:06:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T20:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=267794"},"modified":"2018-01-10T06:06:05","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T20:06:05","slug":"mva-1-4m-alloted-paseo-de-marianas-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mva-1-4m-alloted-paseo-de-marianas-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"MVA: $1.4M alloted for Paseo de Marianas upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Tatiana Babauta, destination enhancement specialist of the Marianas Visitors Authority, presents the renovation specifics of the Paseo de Marianas to the MVA board last month. Looking on are MVA board chair Gloria Cavanagh and board member Nick Nishikawa. (Bea Cabrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Marianas Visitors Authority has alloted $1.4 million to give the islands\u2019 only pedestrian mall\u2014the Paseo de Marianas\u2014a facelift.<\/p>\n

Speaking in front of the MVA board last month, MVA managing director Chris Concepcion said they have been working on improvements in the Paseo de Marianas for a few years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe A&E designs are complete and we sought board approval to announce request for proposal for this project to see what bids we can get for this project. The ceiling amount is $1.4 million and it is reserved already,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall plan is really nice. MVA destination enhancement specialist Tatiana Babauta is working closely with our contractor that does the architectural work,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Concepcion said that the proposed design will provide a landscape that is true about the Marianas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will put a more trees to provide shade to people who are shopping or just strolling. For public events, a permanent stage for performances will be built, there will be a new walkway and definitely adequate lighting,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now ready to start the project and the next step is to issue RFPs,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Babauta shared more plans that will be done in the renovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, we are moving and clearing everything that is in the middle of Paseo so if you are standing at the Beach Road side, you will see everything up to Fiesta Resort & Spa. Second, we plan to construct a manmade river surrounded by blue flax stones which will give an environment that is relaxing. Third, we plan to plant palm trees and bonggang villa on both sides of the Paseo and add more plants,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFourth, a Japanese shrine will be built and it ill be a historical site and attraction. It will have a green wall behind the shrine and we will put a bench in front of it where people can sit down and feel the neatness and serenity of the place. Fifth, we noticed that some of the lights in Paseo are not aligned. Currently, lights poles are criss- crossed and the distance is not calculated so we are going to align it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Board member Jerry Tan suggested adding a good sound system at PDM so it will not only be attractive visually but also audibly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason I said this is for example, Christmas time, I think it will be good even without any band that all day long you are playing nice Christmas songs but you gotta have a sound system that allow you to have that,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we can have music all year round not only Christmas but also local songs. Sometimes you walk through Paseo and it\u2019s too quiet. One thing that I noticed over the years is that I get attracted to music and light and adding music will be a plus,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The board and Concepcion agreed and the latter said that he will take this up with contractor.<\/p>\n

Concepcion said that they are looking at an eight-month construction timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the board\u2019s approval of RFPs, we are excited to see what proposals are out there so we can begin construction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Marianas Visitors Authority has alloted $1.4 million to give the islands\u2019 only pedestrian mall\u2014the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":267795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[2714,413,212,67],"class_list":["post-267794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-chris-concepcion","tag-music","tag-mva","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267794","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}