ALI to develop tourism estates in Cavite, Cebu

MANILA, Philippines - Property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) will develop leisure communities in Cavite and Cebu, replicating the success of its 320-hectare Anvaya Cove in Bataan province.

Partnering with land owners Gaisano Group and listed Boulevard Holdings Inc. (BHI) of the Panlilio family will allow ALI to expand its leisure development portfolio, its top executive said.

For its acquisition of some properties of the Panlilio family, ALI president and CEO Antonino T. Aquino said: “We are always talking about leisure type of community exactly similar to what we had in Anvaya, something similar to what we will be doing in El Nido.”

Late last month, ALI announced it is beefing up its resort holdings by acquiring some BHI properties in line with its goal of doubling its landbank for tourism estates to 1,000 hectares in the next two to three years.

Due diligence for properties in Ternate, Cavite and Puerto Azul will be completed in the next four months, Aquino said.

BHI owns a vast landbank in Ternate, Cavite which includes the 3,000-hectare Puerto Azul complex. It also operates Friday’s Boracay and Friday’s Puerto Galera in Mindoro. The Panlilio family is keen on reviving Puerto Azul, which was once dubbed as “Asia’s Paradise Resort” and the “World’s Golfing Capital.”

ALI will also be putting up a tourism estate in the Queen City of the South after partnering with the Viscal Group of the Gaisanos for the development of a 12-hectare property in Mactan Island, Cebu.

Aquino said the property arm of the Ayala conglomerate will develop the property into a leisure-type project banking on the tourism sector.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is targeting to attract 10 million foreign tourists by 2016 while encouraging investments in hotels and tourism-related infrastructure.

Foreign tourist arrivals jumped 11 percent to 1.27 million in the first quarter of the year, allowing the DOT to keep on track to attracting 5.5 million tourists this year.

Aside from tourism-related development, ALI is targeting to create a third major business district in Cebu, following the footsteps of the Cebu IT Park and Cebu Business Park.

Late last month, ALI and AboitizLand entered into a 50-50 joint venture for the development of properties in Cebu.

“We will jointly acquire something and on that basis put up a mixed-use type of development, effectively the third major business district oriented type of development,” Aquino said.

ALI’s earnings surged 27 percent to P9.04 billion last year from P7.14 billion in the previous year as revenues from its residential, hotel, office and commercial projects jumped 23 percent to P54.52 billion.