MARIVELES, Bataan — The Freeport Area of Bataan (FAB) here on Thursday announced various projects that are about to be finished and those proposed for implementation this year.
FAB chairman Emmanuel Pineda said undergoing finishing touches and to be operational this year are the Casa Mariveles Hotel and Restaurant, Sharemax Hotel and Economic Housing that will cater to ordinary workers.
The Casa Mariveles Hotel is a three-storey hotel with 22 bedrooms and a café-style dining area that will be operational this March.
The six-storey Sharemax Hotel has 72 rooms, 12 KTV rooms, a Chinese restaurant and a café. It is set to operate in April 2018.
The Economic Housing is composed of four buildings with three levels each. Each building has 39 units that can accommodate four to six persons per unit. Each unit has a floor area of 24 square meters. The estimated date of completion is May 2018.
Pineda said on the drawing board are the proposed Manila Bay Bridge, International Container Port Terminal, FAB Commercial Strip, FAB Central Terminal, New AFAB Factory Building Sites and GICC Development, among others.
The proposed Manila Bay Bridge will connect the provinces of Bataan and Cavite. It has a span of 24.4 kilometers across Manila Bay.
The proposed International Container Port Terminal will rise in a 48-hectare terminal area with 24 hectares as container storage yard and 30,000 square meters of warehousing. The port has a berth length of 880 meters and depth of 16 meters. Its annual capacity is 950,000 TEU’s.
Another proposal is the FAB Commercial Strip that has 10 floors at 6,000 square meters per floor. The ground up to fourth floors are for offices and commercial spaces while the fifth to 10th floors are for dormitel. There will be a parking area in the basement.
Another project in the drawing board is the FAB Central Terminal that will house all vehicles plying the Mariveles – Balanga and other routes.
The proposed New Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) Factory Building Sites calls for the construction of 15 new standard factory buildings at the second phase of the FAB industrial area.
At the proposed GICC Development are an eight-storey four-star resort hotel with pool, two-storey casino complex, two-storey leisure & entertainment complex, five-storey BPO/office building, executive clubhouse, promenades/landscape parks and tree lanes boulevard.
FAB, former Bataan Export Processing Zone-turned Bataan Economic Zone, has a total land area of 1,700 hectares.
As of December 31, 2017, it has 128 multi-national companies with 37,455 employees.
FAB, Pineda said, envisions to be a magnet for development.
“Highlighting the low cost and ease of doing business as competitive advantages, it is now moving towards the direction of attracting Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), logistics and port-related operations,” he said. (Ernie Esconde/PNA)
