Tuesday, December 19, 2006 More locators choose Mandaue recla project
SEVERAL multimillion-peso establishments will soon rise at the Mandaue North Reclamation Area (MNRA) and is expected to expedite the promotion of the city as an “emerging convention center in Asia,” Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano said.
“I am happy that these new developments will push through because these will make Mandaue City the next destination in the world of business, investments and tourism,” Ouano said.
Apart from the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), the Cebu Boardwalk, other developments in the area will include a hotel, casino, recreational facility, a school and the relocation of a duty free outlet, Ouano told reporters in a press conference last Friday.
Although Ouano did not disclose the hotel’s name, he said a pool of Hong Kong investors will build and manage a 12-story five-star hotel which will begin construction in the next three years.
He said the hotel, which will include a casino, will be situated right across the CICC and will occupy some five hectares.
Likewise, Ouano said Manila-based developer FF Cruz and Co. Inc (FFCCI) and Duty Free Philippines have signed a memorandum of agreement for the latter’s new site.
He said Duty Free Philippines, which plans to construct its own building within the vicinity of the Cebu Boardwalk, will move to its new location by March next year.
Completion
The on-going construction of the multi-billion 50-hectare Cebu Boardwalk project is set for completion in the middle of next year, Ouano also revealed.
Aside from the retirement city and theme park, the Cebu Boardwalk will also have an 8,000-square-meter amphitheater park, cinemas, an art gallery, a marina, a yacht club, a marina promenade and a Zen center.
Full swing
It will also have a tourist center, visitor center, souvenir shops, antique shops, restaurant strips, fast food chains, food court, retail shops, banks, themed flea market and a trade and exhibition center.
Ouano added that the construction of the P235-million recreational facility by Golden Great Value Properties is now in “full swing.”
Under the agreement between the City and Golden Great Value Properties, the firm will lease nearly six hectares of a City-owned lot, including the site of the unfinished Uniwide building.
In a separate interview, Cebu Doctors’ Hospital Inc. president Potenciano Larra-zabal Jr. said as early as January, some classes will already be held in the new site of the Cebu Doctors’ University, located within the north reclamation area.
With the putting up of business establishments at the MNRA next year, Ouano said the city is already studying the proposition of new public utility jeepney routes.
Ouano added that because of the new developments, the City has redirected the zoning of the reclamation area to complement the CICC.
“The establishment of the CICC is giving us the opportunity to reposition our planning initiatives, from an industrial hub to an emerging convention city of Asia,” City administrator Serafin Blanco said earlier.
MNRA has a total land area of 180 hectares, 32 percent of which belongs to the City while the rest is owned by FFCCI. (MMM)
