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Gun Beach to undergo multimillion commercial development
An undeveloped area in the heart of Guam's tourism district will soon be home to the island's tallest high-rise. The multimillion dollar venture is a sign that off-island investors see hope in the island's ailing economy. The area that now houses the normally peaceful and undisturbed Gun Beach along Tumon Bay may look like acres and acres of jungle at the moment, but three years from now could be home a massive commercial development effort.
"This is basically a high-rise condo and also some other buildings for residential and some shopping arcade, mini-shopping malls; and specifically, we emphasize on the big water parks," explained Juno Eun, a corporate counselor and business development vice president for CoreTech International, a local company working with Korea-based developer Kyung Maek C&D, LLC. The Two Lovers Towers is slated to be the island's premier landmark in Tumon, complete with hundreds of executive condominiums, a village arcade containing a mini shopping mall and restaurants, and the island's largest water park.
The Towers, along with the Cliffside Towers, are slated to be thirty-five stories high, containing approximately 1,500 rooms. Eun says the development plan has been in the works for the last year as Kyung Maek has confidence in the island's economy. "Investor's confidence is based on the economy's estimation and forecast for Guam...the military's coming and other real estate price will hopefully be going up and with appreciation, we expect as the rest Korean monies freely coming from Korea to Guam and Korean real estate market has been changing and they're looking for some other market to invest in," he noted.
The Korea-based company acquired the property in Guam's visitor district for an undisclosed amount of money. Gun Beach is a hotel/resort zoned property that in all spans more than 87,000 square meters.
Eun says the development, which the company hopes will begin in the next few months, will have even more economic benefits for the island. "For construction wise we believe about 500 people, lay workers for years and after we've completed projects we are going to hire more than 100 people, minimum wise to operate and maintenance, so we're expecting 3,000 total manpower for total projects."
With construction slated to begin before the end of the year, Kyung Maek and CoreTech are hopeful the new high rise project will be completed by 2010 - just in time for the military buildup on Guam. Once completed, the units depending on their size, will be sold for an estimated half-million dollars each.
As for those residents who are concerned about beach access, CoreTech assures the public that access to Gun Beach will still be available once the high rise is built. CoreTech is the same company that is currently building the Ironwood Estates and the island's six new public schools.
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