Advance Management Inc. and Pacific Technical Services Guam are looking at setting up shop in the Northern Mariana Islands. Monty M. McDowell general manager of AMI and PTSG told the Journal “We see a lot of need for our services in the Saipan area and we are actually flying out there and performing some services via our Guam office. We would like to go up there and we are certainly looking at it as a core potential.”

Since October 1990 AMI has provided Guam with a range of property management and building maintenance services to the government military and private sector. AMI acquired PSTG on April 1 2003. According to AMI’s Web site PTSG “provides full service commercial food equipment sales service parts and maintenance services to a wide range of commercial kitchen operators on Guam.”

McDowell said there is a definite need in the NMI for services provided by both companies. He said he is still investigating the possibility of opening an AMI and PTSG office in Saipan or continuing to operate out of the Guam office. “It’s going to take some money to open up there.”

McDowell has studied the NMI market. He said there are many choices for potential customers on Guam but choices are limited for NMI businesses and residents “It definitely looks like there is a big void in what I do up there… with the commercial food equipment and with maintenance services they are completely void of those services.”

Employing migrant workers is an issue McDowell is investigating before launching a Saipan base. He said he must research the process of employing these individuals.

“My feeling is — I want to go and I don’t really want to service companies from Guam because I don’t think that is sufficient. It costs businesses more because you have to roll into the cost of service the flight the lodging and the per diem. It may be fair because they don’t have anybody doing it but if I were a business I wouldn’t want to pay for that on a continuous basis. You’d like to see a more permanent presence and charging them similar rates you charge on Guam ” McDowell said. MBJ