Published on Thursday, 20 December 2012
00:00
Written by ALBERT CASTRO [ Malaya.com.ph ]
Malaya
Business News Online - Philippine Business News | Online News Philippines
El Nido
Resorts, the tourism development arm of Ayala Land, Inc. for El Nido in
Palawan, is laying the ground works for this latest project in the area,
according to Ayala Land president
Antonino Aquino.
Following its
foray into island-resort development in the area, Ayala Land is looking at an inland development of its 500-hectare property in the main island
of Palawan, also in El Nido, off the town’s only airport.
“The concept
is (we want) to be able to develop island resorts and (capitalize) on the beach
front. We have a long beachfront there,” Aquino said.
Aquino said
they want to see a more organized way
like building resort villages along that coast. “There’ll be a combination of a
hotel, and residential (development), that’s the concept,” added Aquino.
Aquino
earlier said the beachfront runs three kilometers, which makes the area ideal
for a tourism estate.
The
development follows Ayala Land’s first three ventures in the area with the
Lagen island resort, the Miniloc island resort and the Pangulasian island
resort, all owned and operated by El Nido Resorts, which the former bought into
in 2010.
In 2010,
Ayala Land partnered with Asian Conservation Co. (ACC) , owner of the El Nido
Resorts.
Land prices
in some areas have been since tripled to as high as P600 per square meter as
Ayala Land continues with its acquisition.
At P200 per
square meter, El Nido is estimated to have spent at least P1 billion for the whole 500-hectare
property in the area.
Ayala Land is
expanding its tourism-related business, seeing this as one of the “growth
engines” of the country.
After El Nido
Resorts, Ayala Land also bought Club Noah Isabel in Taytay, Palawan, which also
operates an island resort at the northern tip of Palawan; El Nido faces the
Western Philippine sea.
Aquino said
they plan to replicate their Palawan foray into other parts of the country,
particularly in the Visayas.
“We will be
interested in similar locations in the region. When you look at the map of the
Philippines, the Visayas region is where
you have a lot of islands. Islands have the best beaches. We should be focusing
on that area,” Aquino said in an earlier
interview.
Aquino said
Visayas is ideal for tourism with its various islands that have good
marine life and healthy corals.
He added that
Ayala Land eyes to have a total of 1,000 hectares of tourism-estates.
Compleenting
the resort developments are several boutique hotels under the brand “Seda.”
Seda
Bonifacio Global City recently
soft-opened with Seda Cagayan de Oro set to open before the year ends.
Al Legaspi,
AyalaLand Hotels and Resorts Corp. (AHRC) chief operating officer, said they
are set to add within the next 14 months a total of 665 rooms, spread out among
four Seda properties, each within an Ayala Land mixed-use community.
Seda
Bonifacio Global City will have 179 rooms, and will be within easy access of
the restaurants and shops of Bonifacio High Street and Serendra within the
emerging business district, AHRC said.
The second,
Seda Centrio, Cagayan de Oro with 150 rooms, will be within the Centrio ALI
mixed-use development which includes offices and retail. The Abreeza, Davao and
NUVALI projects are scheduled to open in the first and last quarters of 2013
respectively.
Before El
Nido resorts, Ayala Land had another tourism-development, Anvaya Cove and
Nature Club in Bataan.
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