Gatchalian group to take over Mimosa

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga – The Clark Development Corp. (CDC) will turn over on Oct. 11 to Gatchalian-owned Waterfront Phils. Inc. (Waterfront) the management and operation of the 215-hectare Mimosa Leisure Estate (Mimosa) for the next 50 years.

The state-owned CDC, which took over Mimosa during the Estrada administration in 1998, has called on hundreds of golfing members of the Mimosa Golf and Country Club (MGCC) here to update their memberships for endorsement to Waterfront which will manage Mimosa for the next 50 years.

The Gatchalian-owned Waterfront won the P1.5-billion contract to develop and operate the estate which used to belong to Antonio Gonzalez’s Mondragon Leisure and Resorts Corp. until the CDC’s takeover.

CDC is expected to earn at least P160 million yearly from the lease of the Mimosa property over a 50-year term.

Watefront is expected to invest P1 billion in the estate within five years. CDC and Waterfront had entered into a 90-day memorandum of understanding which is set to mature into a lease agreement on Oct. 10 upon the delivery of initial commitments, including the initial upfront fee of P770 million.

The amount includes P450 million in minimum payment, P160 million as security deposit and P160 million as advance lease rental. The contract is renewable for another 25 years, the CDC said.

Reports indicate that Waterfront has remitted the P770 million, to CDC, although no senior official from the CDC was available yesterday to confirm this.

In an official advisory, CDC president Benigno Ricafort said “all golf club members of the former Mimosa Golf and Country Club are hereby notified that only those meeting the following requirements shall be included in the final list to be endorsed to the new operator.”

Golfers said Ricafort’s advisory “clearly affirmed that the takeover of Waterfront is definite”.

“In view of the forthcoming turnover of the former Mimosa Leisure Estate, the Clark Development Corp. is calling all members of the Mimosa Golf and Country Club who wish to be endorsed to the new operator to update their membership,” Ricafort said in his advisory.

He added that “only members with proof of membership such as the original golf certificate duly signed by authorized signatories of MLRC and certificate of membership duly validated by CDC as to its authenticity” will be honored, even as he advised some golfers to settle arrears on or before Dec. 15.

He warned that “failure to do the foregoing within the prescribed period shall automatically result in the non-inclusion of the member in the final list to be endorsed to the new operator and the termination of playing rights and privileges within the facility.”

The Mimosa estate has a 36-hole championship golf course, Holiday Inn Hotel, Montevista Hotel and Restaurants, several international and specialty restaurants and a casino operated by Casino Filipino.

Scheduled next for public auction, the CDC said, are two more prime properties, one measuring 60 hectares and the other 309 hectares, intended for development as a tourism destination with high-end residential and recreational areas. The 60-hectare property has a tag price of P1 billion.