CDA tried to sell the defunct hotel for $1 million but there were no takers.
According to CDA acting Executive Director Oscar Camacho, Commerce will use Pacific Gardenia to help businesspersons and future entrepreneurs on island.
“CDA will retain ownership of the hotel assets,” he said. “The Small Business Development Center, through coordination with the Department of Commerce, and the Small Business Administration will provide counseling and related services and manage the business incubator program [at Pacific Gardenia],” Camacho said.
These entities, he added, are also considering the inclusion of the Northern Mariana Islands Trades Institute.
“Given this scenario,” he said, “and the potentials these new alliances could bring to the business community, CDA and Commerce agreed that the utilization of Pacific Gardenia could be maximized to the benefit of all parties.”
In the past, CDA granted an annual funding of $250,000 to the Pacific Business Center Program of the University of Hawaii.
CDA likewise provided annual funding for the SBDC programs of Northern Marianas College.
Camacho said training sessions, workshops, seminars, loan consulting and counseling services to potential and existing CDA clients were conducted by each program coordinators and/or graduate students.
“These programs proved successful in many ways for CDA clients,” he said. “However, the CDA board decided that funding to [the Pacific Business Center Program] could be diverted to local expertise that can provide similar services and counseling peculiar to the CNMI’s customer needs.”
