CLARK FREEPORT – The only five-star hotel in this freeport will open in September next yearand a world class water theme park in 2017. This was the assurancemade by Irineo “Bong” Alvaro, president of BB International Leisureand Resort Development Corp. (BBI), as he bared plans of the ongoing construction of its projects in this freeportduring the media forum Talk Widus at the WidusHotel and Casino here on Wednesday.Hotel Midori Clark, a 2.4-hectare five-star hotel located at the northwest section of the freeport, is set to open onSeptember 30, 2015,
Alvaro said. A multi-billion-pesowater theme park in the area is also under construction and is set to open in 2017, he added.“For the next three years, we will continue with the first phase of the theme park becauseof our commitment to the Clark Development Corp. (CDC),” Alvaro said.
To meet the deadline, Alvaro said, the hotel is now being constructed round- the-clock or on a 24-hour basis. “We would like to createa new benchmark for Clark because we need to change its image from a former duty-free haven to a high-end entertainment and leisure center,” Alvaro said.
“That’s why we are pursuing all these projects now.” He disclosed that they are pressed to meet he deadline because of “an agreement we signed with CDC.” He said on Dec. 19, his company will be submitting the complete en-gineering details of the theme park to CDC for their approval.
“We have a legal obligation to finish the theme park in 2017 because we deposited $500,000 to CDC. If we fail to finish it on time, the money will be forfeited,” he said. This is on op of the P5.5 million that we paid in advance, he added.
Alvaro admitted that the planning tooktime because of a lot of preparations that were made by the architects on the projects like the measurement of the soil component as well as the water depth among others. Alvaro said the main architect is Architect Shyr-Fong Hu, a master architect on urban design who is also an architecture professor of Harvard University in the USA while his local counterpart is Architect Jonathan Gan who is based in Manila from the Gan and Associates.
He said there are three companies that joined together for the projects – Taiwanese company Central Summit, Inc. (CSI) and Filipino companies Eaglesky and BBI. Hotel Midori will have 110 luxury rooms, 19 suites, and standard rooms that will have minimum of 40 square-meters floor area in a 2.4-hectare property while the water theme park occupies 10 hectares.
Alvaro said he is confident that the market will be good since “it is a fact that 40 percent of tourists visiting Hog Kong Disneyland are Filipinos.” “Now, there is no need to go to Hong Kong because the water theme park is comparable to any place in the world,” he said.
