Alter City set to expand Tinian project

Monday 11th of May 2015

Representatives of Macau-based Alter City Group met with Lt. Governor-elect Ralph DLG Torres and other Northern Mariana Islands officials to present a check of $1.2 million as partial payment for the firm’s major siting permit for its casino resort on Tinian.

The Saipan Tribune reported that the company outlined changes to its plan for the resort which will now be built on 700,000 square meters of land leased with the government as opposed to 200,000 square meters as initially proposed.

The resort will include theme parks, a skybridge, a hotel and casino resort complex with a total of 6,000 hotel rooms, villas and serviced apartments.

Alter City managing director Ken Lin said global theme parks such as LegoLand, Hello Kitty Land, and 21st Century Fox, and a “skybridge” connecting Tinian to other islands via an “aero bus” are all on the cards for Alter City.

“From roughly 2,500 rooms, we are now planning for 6,000 rooms. We are also talking with airlines,” Lin said, adding that it will take about 12 years to complete the project.

Payment of the siting fees is required by the CNMI through the Division of Coastal Resources Management office.

The development is in three phases and includes the construction of hotel rooms, water parks, an 18-hole golf course, villas, casino facilities, and related tourism amenities.

In November 2014, a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives unanimously approved the public land lease. Alter City Group plans to build its casino resort at Puntan Diablo, also known as Nasarino, on Tinian.

Lin said a concern that has been voiced numerous times is the resort’s close proximity to proposed military “live-fire” exercises on some parts of Tinian. But Lin said his company has decided to move forward with the project anyway.

“we decided as a team to move forward with the project.”