Fast-growing
Castle Group enters
Saipan hotel market

The company signs a contract
to manage a new 12-story hotel

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The Castle Group Inc., one of Hawaii's fastest growing hotel management companies, has secured a foothold in Saipan with a contract to manage a new 68-unit condominium hotel.

The 12-story building, one of the tallest on Saipan, will celebrate its grand opening Oct. 1. The beachfront hotel features one-, two- and three-bedroom units and penthouse suites, according to the company.

Castle was formed in May 1994, after purchasing the assets of a company that managed the Hanalei Bay Resort on Kauai and the Kaluakoi Villas on Molokai.

It manages 21 vacation properties in Hawaii, a mix of hotels and resort condominiums.

The company launched a major overseas expansion with the announcement last week of the acquisition of controlling interest in a company in Indonesia that manages 11 hotels and has contracts to manage another 10 being built.

That company, P.T. Qualita Indonesia, was Castle's first step outside Hawaii.

Kelvin Bloom, Castle president and chief operating officer, said today that the market for the Saipan property is primarily Japanese, although travel from Korea to the area also is expanding.

Growth opportunities these days are greater outside Hawaii than they are within the state, Bloom said. Indonesia in particular is growing rapidly.

"It kind of reminds me of Hawaii 20 years ago when the 'state bird' was the climbing crane," Bloom said.

"The acquisition of this condominium hotel fits in with our overall expansion plan, which is to progressively grow in Asia and the Pacific," Bloom said.

"Saipan is a strategic location for us as are Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands in general because there is a lot of symmetry between these markets and Hawaii."

The hotel in Saipan, which is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, is called the Aquarius Beach Tower.

The Castle Group's shares, trading under the symbol CAGU, were unchanged today, closing at $2.121/2.

The stock trades over the counter on the electronic bulletin board system.