TARGETING the information technology (IT) and the tourism sector, a 7, 500 square-meter IT center with a 12-storey hotel will soon rise in the export processing zone in Lapu-Lapu City.
Mahi, by AppleOne Properties, Inc. (API), will have space allocations which includes 30 percent I.T. industry, 29 percent common utility and facility and 41 percent retail and hotel spaces.
"We will continue our expansion in the mixed use market," API chief executive officer and president, Ray Manigsaca, said in a press release.
Mahi will be constructed as a Philippine Export Processing Zone Authority (PEZA) sanctioned I.T. facility enterprise.
Manigsaca said the property will tap both the I.T. and the tourism sector, considered to be major growth drivers for the economy in Cebu.
"Cebu needs more hotel rooms. We will bring in more international hotel brands," he said.
The hotel will be operated by Fairfield, a Marriott brand of inns and suites.
Steve Baek, senior director for hotel development in Asia Pacific for Marriot International, said the trend in the market is for a hotel to have business and leisure to cater on both weekdays and weekends.
"It's ideal for hotel business because occupancy is high all year round," Baek said.
Brigadier General Charito Plaza, PEZA director general, said the Mactan eco-zone is the first integrated concept in the Philippines.
"It will change the face of the Mactan eco-zone because the new concept of PEZA will integrate the industrial, commercial and residential component like a township," Plaza added. (JOB)