Megaworld to spend P65 B for new township

MANILA, Philippines - Tycoon Andrew Tan-led Megaworld Corp. and sister firm Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. are pouring in P65 billion to develop Westside City, a 31-hectare township  within the Pagcor Entertainment City.

Westside City is scheduled for completion by the last quarter of 2020 and will be the home of the second Resorts World Property in the Philippines after the first Resorts World in Newport City in Pasay.

Other developments in Westside Citiy are Megaworld’s upscale residential condominium buildings and a luxury mall.

There will also be international hotel brands offering a total of 1,500 rooms. These include The Westin Hotel of the Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts Group, Hotel Okura Manila of the Okura Hotels & Resorts, the Genting Grand and Crockfords Tower of the Genting Group, and Kingsford Hotel.  

Envisioned to become the “Broadway of Asia,” Westside City, will have performing arts facilities such as the Philippines’ first grand opera house with  a total capacity of 3,000.  

Megaworld chairman and CEO Andrew Tan is known to be a staunch supporter of the Filipino performing arts, with the Newport Performing Arts Theatre paving the way for the rise of original Filipino stage plays in the country’s capital.

Westside City marks Megaworld’s 20th integrated urban township and the second leisure and entertainment township, next to Newport City.  

Just last month, Megaworld announced it was investing P30 billion in a 35.6-hectare township in San Fernando, Pampanga.

To date, the Megaworld Group has around 4,000 hectares of land in its portfolio. Around 80 percent is dedicated to townships or mixed-use communities, the concept of property development that Megaworld pioneered in the Philippines way back in the 1990s. T

he townships combine the residential, office, commercial, retail, recreational and institutional components to form mixed-use communities.  

Megaworld’s existing townships include Eastwood City in Quezon City, (18.5 hectares), Newport City in Pasay City (25 hectares), McKinley Hill (50 hectares), McKinley West (34.5 hectares), Uptown Bonifacio (15.4 hectares) and Forbes Town Center (5 hectares), all in Fort Bonifacio. 

Among its other township projects are The Mactan Newtown in Cebu (28.8 hectares), Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City (72 hectares), ArcoVia City in Pasig City (12.3 hectares), Northill Gateway (53 hectares) and The Upper East (34 hectares) in Negros Occidental, Davao Park District in Lanang, Davao City (11 hectares), Boracay Newcoast  in Boracay Island (150 hectares), Southwoods City in the boundaries of Cavite and Laguna (561 hectares), Alabang West in Las Pinas City (62 hectares), Sta. Barbara Heights in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo (170 hectares) and Twin Lakes in Tagaytay (1,300 hectares) and Sunvar Ecotown in Tanza, Cavite (350 hectares).

Twin Lakes is being undertaken by subsidiary  Global-Estate Resorts Inc. (GERI), while Sunvar Ecotown is a project by unit Suntrust Properties Inc.