The Department of Public Lands is expecting a resolution to Mariana Resort & Spa\u2019s expiring lease within a year as they continue to discuss the parameters of a new lease agreement with sole bidder Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Saipan Tribune, DPL real estate division director Rachel Roque said DPL is preparing to issue another request for proposal, or RFP, for a \u201chotel golf resort operating agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA new lease has not been awarded at this time, however, DPL\u2026is preparing to announce an RFP by close of next week for a \u2018hotel golf resort operating agreement\u2019 to operate and manage, as well as maintain the entire facility,\u201d she said, adding that the agreement was not for a lease.<\/p>\n
\u201cDPL expects the RFP process to be completed in [about] 90 days,\u201d she said, adding that Kan Pacific Saipan Ltd., the company that owns Mariana Resort, may participate in the RFP for the agreement.<\/p>\n
Mariana Resort\u2019s 40-year lease on public land where the hotel sits ends on April 30, 2018. The lease is the maximum allowed for public land under the CNMI Constitution.<\/p>\n
The maximum amount of years includes the 25-year initial lease agreement with the company, as well as the additional 15-year extension.<\/p>\n
Roque explained that in 2015, an RFP was announced on the public land leased by Mariana Resort, since entertaining extensions were considered illegal due to the constitutional limit of a maximum of 40 years, inclusive of the extension. She said Kan Pacific was allowed to participate in the bidding process; however, only IPI responded to the RFP.<\/p>\n
The hotel golf resort operating agreement, according to Roque, would have a one-year term, a period which she believes is sufficient for DPL to come up with a draft lease agreement with IPI for the Legislature\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n
Roque added that land leases over five hectares requires the blessing of the Legislature before executing the lease agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cDPL is confident that it will successfully negotiate a lease that continues to benefit the Northern Marianas dscent in the next year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Roque told Saipan Tribune that DPL\u2019s initial plan was to finalize terms of lease with IPI. With that yet to happen, she explained that entering a temporary one-year hotel golf resort operating agreement was the backup, while announcing an invitation to bid for maintenance and security services would be their second backup plan.<\/p>\n
She added the maintenance and security services ITBs are \u201ccurrently being announced\u201d and, if contracted, would only be on a retainer basis, meaning the agreement between DPL and the contractor could be terminated anytime. <\/p>\n
\u201cDPL will ensure that operations and maintenance do not cease while negotiating a lease or conducting any processes to secure a most beneficial lease,\u201d Roque said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Public Lands is expecting a resolution to Mariana Resort & Spa\u2019s expiring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[175,12497,3077,1252],"class_list":["post-274355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-dpl","tag-ipi","tag-mariana-resort-spa","tag-rfp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274355","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}