Megaworld to build Marriott

Property giant Megaworld Corporation is putting up a 350-room Marriot Hotel as an anchor project for a groundbreaking, 25-hectare mixed-use development called Newport City at the Villamor air base in Pasay City.

Megaworld told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had signed a memorandum of understanding on the hotel project with Marriot Hotels International B.V., which owns the Marriott chain of first-class, full-service hotels and worldwide.

Megaworld is tapping Marriott to manage the hotel as part of the Marriot Hotels, Resorts & Suites group. Megaworld also wants Marriott to act as its technical adviser during the planning, designing, construction and furnishing stages of the project. This will ensure that the hotel will be built and furnished to world-class standards.

Newport City, bounded by Andrews Avenue and Sales Street, borders the Villamor golf course on the east side and faces the new terminal of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on the west side. It is a five-minute drive from Magallanes Village in Makati City.

"Newport City will be comparable to Asia’s most exciting hotel-and-golf resorts," said Megaworld Investor Relations Officer John Hao. "Guests at the Marriott Hotel will enjoy unobstructed front-row views of the 18-hole Villamore golf course."

Megaworld is currently in talks with a top foreign hotel interiors design group to design the interiors including the grand lobby of the Marriott Hotel, Hao said.

Aside from a first-class hotel, the Newport City urban resort project will host a low-density residential area, an office park, a themed shopping and entertainment hub and an institutional center featuring a sports club, a church and other community facilities and services.

The commercial and entertainment hub will have a shopping village as its centerpiece, while the business park is designed to be the headquarters of information technology and business process outsourcing companies as well as those engaged in airport-related services.

Marriott’s hotel at Newport City is the first in Metro Manila and the second in the country after Cebu. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with approximately 133,000 employees and more than 2,600 properties located in the US and nearly 70 other countries and terrritories. Marriott Hotels are located in major gateway cities worldwide including Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Washington, D.C., Bangkok, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Quito (Ecuador), Lima and Mexico City.

As a global hospitality brand, Marriott has become synonymous with exceptional quality, service and value. In 2004, Marriott International posted revenues of $10 billion.