BACOLOD CITY — Property giant Megaworld will utilize the heritage houses inside a former sugar mill compound as the centerpiece for its PHP500-million luxury boutique hotel development here.
The hotel, which will rise within the PHP28-billion 34-hectare The Upper East township, is expected to be completed in 2022.
Harold Brian Geronimo, senior assistant vice president for public relations and media affairs of Megaworld, and Rachelle Peñaflorida, vice president for sales and marketing of Megaworld Bacolod, presented the proposed hotel project in a conference with bloggers and reporters at the L’ Fisher Hotel here on Tuesday.
Geronimo said three heritage homes located inside the former Bacolod-Murcia Milling Company sugar central will be incorporated in the hotel complex.
Megaworld has tapped renowned heritage architect and conservationist Dominic Galicia to design the hotel which will let old structures undergo “adaptive reuse” to become part of the entire structure.
Galicia, in a statement, said: “the entire hotel complex will be anchored on the oldest structure and will expand from this like wings, with the ballroom wing to the left and guest room wing to the right.”
The main lobby will be a retrofitted heritage house which was previously a guest house while the other wing beside it that used to house the guest rooms will be converted into a ballroom facility.
“As a landmark of Bacolod, it will express the noble intent of remembering and anchoring in a glorious past as we move towards what we dream to be a glorious future,” said Galicia, the architect of the redesigned building of the National Museum of Natural History in Manila.
Geronimo said they will later announce the brand that will manage and operate the hotel.
He added that Megaworld is “introducing a lot of hotel brands” with the goal to become the “biggest hotel developer in the Philippines by 2020.”
Peñalorida said through the hotel, Megaworld is keen on helping boost the MICE or meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions industry of Bacolod.
“This luxury boutique hotel will be another landmark. The hotel will be a perfect venue for conventions, weddings and memorable celebrations as it integrates an outdoor garden setting into its ballroom facility,” she added.
The hotel, which will be built along the township’s six-lane Upper East Avenue, will feature 48 suites, an all-day dining restaurant, courtyard, swimming pool and pool deck, fitness center, and Zabana Bar, Megaworld’s signature hotel bar concept, among others.
The hotel ballroom, which will be connected to an expensive tropical garden, is seen to become the city’s biggest hotel ballroom facility that can accommodate around 1,000 guests in a banquet setting. (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)
