Government to sell Leyte Hotel

MANILA, Philippines - The Privatization and Management Office, in collaboration with the Department of Tourism is eyeing to privatize the Leyte Park Hotel in Tacloban City by yearend.

The Leyte Park Hotel sits on a sprawling 6.1-hectare resort complex with panoramic sunrise and sunset views of Mount Danglay, San Juanico Strait and San Pedro Bay, the PMO yesterday said.

The hotel, built in the 1970s,  is ideally situated in the eastern Visayan, can serve as a good conference and events venue.

The PMO is considering including the conservation and redevelopment of the Leyte Park Hotel as a tourism establishment in the terms of reference for the property’s sale.

The forthcoming privatization aims to rehabilitate the Leyte Park Hotel in order to promote regional tourism that may not only generate revenues for the City of Tacloban, but more importantly lead to economic growth through an increase in the business or economic activity in the area, the PMO also said.

The privatization of the Leyte Park Hotel comes on the heels of the successful sale of the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) property in Taguig to Ayala Land Inc.

Ayala Land bagged FTI with a bid of P24 billion in a public bidding in August, beating two other giant property developers Robinson’s Land Inc. of the Gokongwei group and Andrew Tan’s Empire East.

The government tried but failed to bid out the FTI property in the past, with the Macapagal-Arroyo administration even lowering the floor price to P7 to P8 billion.  One valuation pegged the value of the property at P12 billion.

The last attempt to auction FTI was in 2009 when private companies snubbed a public bidding for the property.

The FTI agro-industrial complex is one the largest industrial complexes in Metro Manila and is currently home to more than 300 companies.