My business relationship with Ken began shortly after I had left GovGuam Public Works as director in 1971 and soon after started my engineering practice.
One day my secretary informed me (to my disbelief) that Mr. Ken Jones was on the phone. Sure enough Mr. Jones was on the line.
He introduced himself over the phone with that Southern drawl and asked me where my office was. I told him I was at the Julale Shopping Center, where I was sharing an office with two other engineering consultants.
He said for me to wait outside and he will take me for a ride. Wow! And he was driving too! He said to me I want to show you this property and do a study and find out for him whether the property would be suitable for a shopping center.
So I got into his car and he drove us over to the current location of the Agana Shopping Center. He drove around, over to San Ramon Hill, East O’Brien Drive, etc. The property then was the headquarters complex of the Topsy’s Liquor company but also the residence of Mrs. Perez, the matriarch of the Perez family. There was a knoll on this property, where the residence was located.
He gave me a synopsis of why he was interested in the property and the fact that he had to do a lot more than lease (or buy, I don’t remember which option). Ken Jones had to find a suitable location, comparable to her current residence then in comfort and quality, for Mrs. Perez to move into, but also close enough to the Cathedral for her daily attendance at Mass.
He even showed me a vacant property up in Sinajana with a commanding view of the Topsy’s complex where he’s thinking about building Mrs. Perez’s residence. He asked my opinion about the lot. What could I have said? He was the whiz kid from North Carolina. Phenomenal man!
So he asked me to do a site feasibility study to site the Agana Shopping Center to house the Town House Shopping Center, the Payless Supermarket, and other shops at the current site of the Agana Shopping Center. Years later I was wondering why me, why didn’t he commission a more mature firm to undertake such a worthwhile endeavor?
I guess he was happy with my study because subsequently he commissioned my firm again to design and manage the construction of the Town House Center with Payless Supermarket on Saipan.
I have known some great pioneer business people in the islands, including my uncle, Jose “Joeten” C. Tenorio, but this guy Ken was special because he gave this island boy a chance to prove his mettle. I will never forget the opportunities afforded to me by Mr. Ken Jones.
A quarter of a century later after the 1971 encounter, Ken commissioned my firm again, this time to design and manage the construction of the Saipan Aquarius Condominium (now the Aquarius Beach Tower Hotel), a magnificent 13-story edifice that stands a little more than a hundred feet from the beautiful Saipan beach as a testimony of his love for the islands.
JUAN C. TENORIO
Barrigada, Guam
