Mandaue hires urban planner

To support its bid to become Cebu's new economic driver, and the "Convention Center in Asia," the Mandaue City government has commissioned the world-renown urban planner, Jun Palafox to formulate an effective urban planning blueprint for the City.

Currently, Palafox has outlined a conceptual development framework for the 180-hectare Mandaue Reclamation Area to make as the flagship project to support the ambitious positioning of the city.

Based on the framework, the Reclamation Area in Mandaue is envisioned to be the new Central Business District that will give the city its character as a premier business and tourism hub of the Metropolis.

In a press conference held over the weekend, Mandaue City administrator Serafin Blanco bared that the district shall have activities revolving around entertainment, arts and culture, dining, relaxing, unwinding, and shopping, right at the waterfront of the new Mandaue City.

The plan which is targeted to be fully implemented in the next two to three years, will make the area a Special Administrative Zone for Mandaue City that is expected to lure five-star hotel investment, fine dining restaurant joints, leisure and theme park, commercial district among others.

According to Blanco, the development of the south reclamation area in the new Mandaue City shall be integrated with future and existing developments with the Subangdaku Planned Unit Development, and the old Center Business District of the city.

The development concept intends to link the new city of the Central Business District and the International Seaport of Cebu City and the International Airport in Mactan, Island, he added.

On September this year, the Palafox group is expected to provide the Mandaue City administration the detailed plan which is centered on building a new central business district, largely anchored on tourism, information technology center, and business centers that is interconnected with the existing development within its periphery-Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City.

"This [Palafox recommendation] will be the new concept that we'd like to follow, we expect major investments coming in," Blanco added.

Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano stressed that the construction of the P250-million Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), in partnership with the Cebu Provincial government, will push the positioning of the City, becoming the "Convention Center in Asia."

According to Ouano, the holding of the ASEAN Summit at the CICC on December this year, will bring much attention to Mandaue City and will give the city a chance to promote itself to the ASEAN leaders in terms of investment and tourism.

Blanco stressed that since the planned new Mandaue Central Business District will focus on the investments that will support the convention center facility he said one of the priorities of the City is to attract a hotel investor that will offer a five-star facility.

Aside from the CICC, other developments in area includes the construction of a new campus by the Cebu Doctors' University, the Cebu Boardwalk- a multi use development project that will feature a marina, and the Gaisano-developed Taft I.T. Zone which will feature world-class facilities for IT companies.

Even without the plans in place, Mandaue has seen a tremendous leap in its annual income, which tripled from P270 million to P800 million. Gross receipts shot up from P44 billion in 2001 to more than P72 billion in 2005, twice as fast as the national average.

Ouano added that the economic dynamism of the City is driven by over 100 thousand micro, small, medium and large enterprises. The city accounts fro 40 percent of the total export in the furniture sector.

"The City's gone to an industrialization phase and is undergoing a transformation into a financial hub making it 'Cebu's New Economic Driver,'" the Mayor concluded.