by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - Lotte Duty Free Guam is officially taking over the retail concession at the Guam International Airport at 12:01a.m. Sunday, July 21st. " I want to thank the airport and the people that work at DFS for the assistance in making this smooth take over operationally," stated CEO of Lotte Duty Free Guam Mr. Jaime Lee. He also commended Lotte's 125 employees that have been hired so far for meeting the timeline presented by GIAA. The takeover allows Lotte to proceed with completing the $24 million in renovations at the airport, which is expected to be completed at the end of the year. "We will have a soft opening very soon," Lee stated. "Tonight we simply take over operations and the work to build our new presence truly begins," Lee added.

Lotte was awarded the retail concession contract after beating out several other bidders including DFS which held the contract for 30 years. DFS filed a lawsuit and a temporary restraining order to stop the contract, but Superior Court Judge Michael Bordallo dismissed the lawsuit and request for TRO on Friday.