Cebu Landmasters plans hotel venture

MANILA, Philippines — Listed property developer Cebu Landmasters Inc.(CLI) is working on establishing its own hotel brand targeting the two-to three-star market.

On the sidelines of its financial analysts briefing Thursday, CLI president and chief operating officer Jose Soberano III told reporters the company is in the process of putting up its own hotel brand as it is set to launch its first project this year.

“The Patria de Cebu hotel, that will be under our own brand.We’re going to create that,” Soberano said.

The 160- room hotel will be located within the 6,670 square-meter Patria de Cebu property in downtown Cebu.

In October, CLI signed a lease agreement with the  Archdiocese of Cebu for the P900-million redevelopment of the property. Apart from the hotel, the mixed-use project will also feature other components such as retail and office.

Soberano said the hotel is targeted to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year.

“Patria is a heritage site, it’s right across the cathedral, so very likely that we’re positioning it to be in the middle market maybe two to three star,” Soberano said.

Apart from the planned 160 rooms, the hotel will also feature a ballroom that can accommodate up to 500 people, according to Soberano.

For this year, CLI is planning to launch about 1,223 hotel rooms through four hotel projects, such as the Patria de Cebu hotel, the 200-room Citadines Bacolod, 263-room Citadines Paragon, and the 120-room Mactan hotel.

The hotels are among the 29 planned projects worth P25 billion to be launched this year by CLI, which also include 7,517 condominium units, 111 hectares of house and lot packages, and 161,034 square meters of gross leasable area.

This is in line with the firm’s P12.5 billion target in reservation sales, an increase from the P8.54 billion registered last year.