Posted on March 24, 2011 10:11:29 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
FEDERAL LAND, Inc. will be putting up a $300-million hotel in Bonifacio Global City to be run by hospitality industry giant Hyatt Corp., officials said at the project’s launch yesterday.
The project will be the first of many more developments the Metrobank Group’s property arm has planned for the area, the officials said.
The 66-storey, six-star Grand Hyatt Hotel on a 1.5-hectare lot should start commercial operations by 2014.
“We are [spending] in the vicinity of $300 million for the whole development. It is a 400-room development for the hotel,” Federal Land President Alfred V. Ty told reporters at the event.
“It will be funded with loans plus equity. There might be investors also,” Francisco C. Sebastian, president of the Metrobank Group’s investment banking arm First Metro Investment Corp., added.
“The first six floors shall house the hotel podium and ballroom, while Grade A financial and corporate offices will occupy the eighth to the 30th floors,” Federal Land said in a statement yesterday.
Mr. Ty said around 40,000 square meters of office space will be available to multinational companies and financial institutions.
Luxury suites and other hotel amenities will be located from the 30th to the penthouse levels.
“A lot of meetings incentives, conventions and exhibitions, that would be our main concentration in being a businessman’s hotel,” Gary Kwok, chief of the Hyatt International-Asia Pacific, Ltd., said in the same briefing.
The Hyatt group is in charge of the branding and the operations of the hotel, which will charge around $300 per night.
“That gives us an access to Hyatt’s loyal members as they manage the hotel,” Mr. Sebastian said.
This will be Federal Land’s second hotel after Marco Polo Cebu and its first in Metro Manila.
“It will be the anchor of more developments to follow,” Mr. Ty said, noting that the company owns a 10-hectare lot in the city which can be used for middle- and high-end condominiums, retail spaces and office buildings.
“The economy is very progressive so the real estate industry is booming and it gives us the opportunity to roll out projects,” Mr. Ty said.
The Hyatt group, for its part, is looking to introduce new brands in the Philippines after the disaster in Japan cut booking by at least 20%-30% in the capital, Mr. Kwok said. If these push through, the projects will come on top of Hyatt Regency and the Hyatt Hotel and Casino already in Manila. -- Neil Jerome C. Morales
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