Just weeks after losing the Hyatt brand, NMI gets another

BY MARK RABAGO
Saipan Correspondent

International brands are attractive to visitors, particularly those who hold membership of loyalty programs.

The NMI is now in a position to add back another international brand after having lost the Hyatt brand in Garapan.

GARAPAN, Saipan —Sixty-one days after the NMI’s first brand hotel bid adieu, the islands welcomed the Sheraton brand with MB Capital LLC’s announcement on Oct. 22 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts Pte. Ltd.

Starwood Asia is an affiliate of Marriott International Inc., which operates more than 400 Sheraton Hotels and Resorts facilities across the globe.

MB Capital and Marriott will now negotiate and attempt to reach agreement on the definitive contracts for the former Hyatt Regency Saipan property, which closed Aug. 31. The operation of the MB Capital hotel under the Sheraton brand remains subject to MB Capital and Marriott signing binding definitive contracts and MB Capital satisfying the conditions for re-branding.

David Hood, president of MB Capital admitted that the choice of Sheraton came down the wire as the company also considered Hilton Hotels & Resorts as the operator of the property on Micro Beach Road in Garapan.

“This is a pretty historic day. We're excited. I want to take a moment, though, to thank the Hilton and the Marriott team. They are incredible franchises, both companies. It was a tough decision for us, but we had to choose. After a lot of consideration and a lot of hard work, we came to a conclusion, and it became final this morning. We think it's a good choice for the CNMI. As Gloria (Cavanagh, general manager of MB Capital) said, we executed our review today, and things are going to start happening very fast. This team is going to come next week, and things are going to get moving very quickly,” he said.

Hood then led the unveiling of the Sheraton logo at the center of the hotel lobby in the presence of VIP guests led by Gov. Arnold I. Palacios.

Palacios enthusiastically welcomed MB Capital’s choice of the Sheraton and said he is just happy to have one of the NMI’s landmark hotels back online again.

“We knew that [the Department of Public Lands] was already negotiating with Mr. Hood and his company, and so we had to allow the negotiation process to go through. But we were very, very positive going in, talking to Mr. Hood, Gloria, and their team. We knew that we were going to get something done...I'm elated, and I think everyone is elated and relieved that we are going to get a brand. Everybody was kind of depressed when Hyatt walked out of here.”

The governor also assured MB Capital and Hood that they will have the full commitment of his administration to make sure their investment will succeed.

“I think this is a new day, and a new group of people that we know we have confidence in. We're going to make things work for this community. We have Mr. Hood, and I know he's got a team that is committed to the Commonwealth. These folks are from the Commonwealth and so we believe that whatever it's going to take, they're going to give it their best and the government will be with them throughout whether it's helping with marketing or whether helping with incentives we will really try to make this work for us.”

Palacios said the Hyatt was iconic for the Commonwealth, so it was understandable that the image of maintenance workers taking down the Hyatt Regency Saipan sign at one of its towers in late August is still seared in everyone’s consciousness.

“When Hyatt decided to leave, it was like a punch in the gut for everybody, including myself. So, you know, I lost a lot of sleep thinking about this and what's going to come next,” he said.

As for Hood, he said the choice between Sheraton and Hilton all boiled down to fit.

“We could have made the decision a month ago, but we just kept looking at all the specifics and I just think the Sheraton is a better fit for the CNMI. The Sheraton was super excited about the property, so their enthusiasm was just off the charts and that made a big difference for me, because that’s how I feel too,” he said.

Hood later said the decision was so close they actually had the Hilton logo at the back of the sign MB Capital unveiled.

As for the timeline of fully opening the now Sheraton property, he said Miyako has already started welcoming diners and they plan to open the Regency Club on Nov. 25, in time for Thanksgiving. Albeit Hood said, they may have to change the latter’s name to something like Royalty Club.

Cavanagh said aside from Miyako, which was one of the best Japanese restaurants on Saipan, MB Capital also retained the names of iconic restaurants Giovanni's and Kili Cafe. She said they plan to reopen Giovanni’s also by Thanksgiving.

As for staffing, Cavanagh said MB Capital hosted a very successful job fair on Oct. 19 that saw about 450 people apply for entry-level jobs.

“We feel that we're going to have a lot of people that will want the opportunity to be in a new brand hotel. So, we processed and went through the whole job fair basically from 9 o'clock in the morning to about almost 2 o'clock [in the afternoon] to bring everyone through and just talk to them a little bit. It was like speed dating.”

As the Journal earlier reported, Cavanagh confirmed MB Capital is looking at opening the 72-room north wing first with renovations on the main part of the hotel expected to last years, as it will be a major under taking involving the entire infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Christopher A. Concepcion, managing director of the Marianas Visitors Authority; said MB Capital bringing the Sheraton brand to the NMI is a major coup for the islands’ tourism industry.

“MVA is very excited with the announcement by MB Capital of the Sheraton brand’s entry into the CNMI. Their acquisition of the former Hyatt Regency and quick action in finding an alternative brand to take over is commendable.”

He said the Sheraton is part of the Premium line of hotels in the Marriott International group, which is the largest hotel company in the world by number of rooms, adding that Marriott’s loyalty program, Marriott BonVoy, has roughly 200 million members worldwide.

“It’s a tremendously valuable network for our tourism industry as Saipan and the Marianas will be advertised globally simply by having this brand on our shores. We congratulate the owners and the Sheraton brand on this momentous occasion.”

As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean, in addition to 84 hotels with 23,092 rooms in the pipeline. In 2016, Marriot International purchased Starwood Hotels, and the newly merged company again became the world's largest hotel and resort company. mbj

Just weeks after losing the Hyatt brand, NMI gets another