The Guam Hybrid Land Use Commission on Thursday approved using a vacant mall in Tumon as a school and granted a one-year extension for the construction of a subdivision in Tamuning.
The zone variance allows the unused Tumon Bay Mall, owned by Grandview Development, to be converted to a facility that will house 40 classrooms and up to 1,080 students from iLearn Academy, a charter school.
Architect Michael Blas Makio, managing principal at Taniguchi Ruth Makio Architects, said the project would be good for Tumon and good for education.
“Even driving here, we started the really sad exercise of counting the vacant buildings that we're seeing around the island, and that's a really scary growing number, right? So we’ve got to find these viable uses that we can bring into the space,” Makio said.
The vacant mall is located next to Garden Villa Hotel and across from Crowne Plaza Resort.
The Commission also granted a one-year extension for the construction of Oka Villas subdivision, located near Oka Pay-Less and Rosie’s Apartments in Tamuning.
The land has been cleared and utilities are being installed.
The subdivision will have 36 single-family residential lots, a playground and a percolation basin.
