DPL Secretary Oscar M. Babauta said they gave Leisure Planner enough time to express its commitment to pursue the project.
Babauta said he has not heard back from Leisure Planner. He said it has not even responded to a correspondence in which he requested for the company and DPL to come to the table for a dialogue.
“It has been three weeks since the letter was received by Leisure Planner,” he said.
Babauta said the company paid the application fee of $2,500. But having not heard from it, DPL decided not to continue negotiating with it. He said the company’s silence meant it is no longer interested in the project.
He said his duty as secretary of DPL is to proceed to the next potential investor.
He told Variety that California-based Island Ventures LLC, which has interests in the commonwealth, is looking at developing the 109,003-square-meter property north of the now closed Palms Resort.
“I think this company is quite huge. They have interests in the commonwealth — they are associated with resort and industrial companies,” Babauta said acknowledging he has scant information on the new investor and he has yet to review thoroughly its background.
Asked by Variety how much is the new investor planning to infuse into the local economy, the DPL secretary said it’s too premature to say given that they are still negotiating.
Meanwhile, responding to the “rumors” that Neo Goldwings Paradise is planning to revive its interest on Tinian, Babauta said it has yet to officially submit a request.
“They will have to reapply and go through the hurdles again,” he said.
But before they could proceed, the DPL secretary said NGP needs to settle $130,000 in arrears.
Last year, DPL terminated the lease agreements with these two Korean investors seeking to build hotels on Saipan and Tinian.
As of March 2010, NGP owed DPL $78,000 in land lease and interest. NGP said it would build a $1 billion casino-hotel on a 300-hectare public land property on Tinian.
It was also reported earlier that the hotel was having difficulty securing the financing needed to pursue the “ambitious” project on Tinian.
Flame Sako, on the other hand, was proposing to build an $80 million hotel on a San Roque property. With over $55,000 in unsettled rent, Flame Sako was ordered by DPL to vacate the premises last October.
Because of these investments that fell on the wayside, DPL has implemented a new policy requiring new investors to make a one-year advance lease payment.
Kevin International, the local representative of a Hong Kong-based company seeking to build condominium units and hotel north of Pacific Islands Club, among other new investors, will be affected by the new policy.
Last year, Kevin International Corp. met with DPL to negotiate the lease of a 4.3-hectare property formerly leased by KSA Corp.
“As I understand from them, they have initiated the engineering design of the facility. They are very anxious to start the project,” Babauta told Variety.
He said despite the economic condition of the commonwealth, the Hong Kong conglomerate remains upbeat about the two-to-three phase project with an initial investment of close to $12 million.
