SUWASO Corp., which owns Coral Ocean Point Golf & Resort, is having a hard time complying with the 200-hotel room requirement under its current land lease agreement with the Department of Public Lands due to a lack of construction workers.
Brian Shin, the president and chief executive officer of E-Land Group’s Micronesian Resort Inc., the parent-company of Suwaso Corp., told members of the Senate Committee on Resources, Economic Development, Programs & Gaming on Friday that if their construction professionals from South Korea [could] not obtain U.S. visas, “we are going to have a problem.”
He is hoping that the CNMI government can work with investors like COP to address the workforce situation by changing some laws “or doing whatever needs to be done.”
Shin and acting E-Land Group Vice President Gloria Cavanagh joined Department of Public Lands Secretary Teresita A. Santos and other DPL officials in fielding questions from the members of the Senate committee on Friday.
Conducting the meeting were the committee chair, Senate Floor Leader Corina Magofna, and members, Senate Vice President Donald Manglona and Sens. Jude U. Hofschneider, Paul A. Manglona and Frank Q. Cruz.
The committee discussed MRI’s request for a 15-year extension of COP’s land lease agreement with DPL.
DPL Compliance Division Director Greg Deleon Guerrero said COP is in compliance with the current lease agreement, with the exception of completing an additional 100 hotel rooms.
Under the current lease agreement, COP had committed to build 200 hotel rooms in two phases —100 hotel rooms for Phase 1 and another 100 hotel rooms for Phase 2.
However, Deleon Guerrero said, “because of Typhoon Soudelor, Typhoon Yutu and the Covid-19 pandemic, Suwaso had to re-invest their funds toward renovations. And that is why they were not able to complete the remaining 100 rooms.”
Sen. Paul Manglona wants to know how realistic it is to build 100 additional hotel rooms when there is a lack of construction workers in the CNMI.
Cavanagh said, “That’s always going to be a challenge — we are always hopeful that something will change.”
She said E-Land is “a little bit fortunate” because it has its own construction team that it can bring in from South Korea. These construction professionals, she said, “can actually help us with the planning and all that.” Also, Cavanagh said, there are construction companies on island that E-Land has worked with in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yutu.
These construction firms helped Suwaso rebuild COP in two months, she added.
For his part, Shin said, “If we don’t get the visa, we are going to have a problem. We look at the situation as it is, hoping that there is an opportunity for us to fulfill the lease [requirement].”
He said, “unfortunate things have happened in the past” that resulted in their failure to comply with the land lease agreement.
“Do we need to incorporate unfortunate incidents that can happen into our plan? I don’t think that is the right way to do when applying for permits. We are really trying to do all this under these circumstances,” he said.
Sen. Paul Manglona asked DPL if the lease agreement can be changed in the future.
Santos said DPL would have to take the request into consideration and will seek the approval of the Legislature.
The Senate committee also requested copies of relevant documents from DPL and Suwaso.
Sen. Magofna said there may be a need to request DPL and Suwaso to address any additional concerns the committee might have.
