(SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. EVP Peggy Angeles (2nd Left) leads groundbreaking of SMX Clark and Parkinn by Radisson Clark Extension projects. Joining the event are PIRC hotel manager Ann Olalo, Mabalacat City Mayor Cris Garbo, SMX VP and GM Walid Wafik and SMX VP for sales and marketing Agnes Pacis. Photo by Deng Pangilinan)
CLARK FREEPORT – Close to P1 billion will be poured by SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. (SMHCC) into two new buildings at the SM City Clark complex here.
On Tuesday, SMHCC officials led by executive vice president Peggy Angeles broke ground for the construction of the SMX Convention Center Clark and the 100 additional rooms for Park Inn Hotel by Radisson Clark.
Joining Angeles at the groundbreaking were Mabalacat City Mayor Cris Garbo and SMHCC executives Agnes Pacis and Neil M. Ramboa, SMX Convention Center vice president, and GM Walid Wafik as well as Park Inn Hotel By Radisson Clark GM Ann Olalo and SM City Clark mall manager Andrea Madlangbayan.
Angeles said the first to be opened is the SMX Convention Center, which is easier to build, in January 2020 while the additional rooms for Park Inn will be opened two months later in March 2020.
Olalo said the expansion of Park Inn is a commitment. “We recognized that Clark is a high gold market for us especially the strong demand of business and leisure travelers and so we would like to piggy back in all of these developments in Clark by also expanding an additional 100 rooms for our current inventory of 154 rooms,” Olalo said.
“Since we are across the SMX Convention, this gives us the opportunity to cater MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions). We become the default hotel,” she added.
Wafik gave a brief backgrounder of the SMX Convention Center which he said started in Manila next to the Mall of Asia and with the expansions now SMX has a total of seven properties with most of them inside the SM malls except the one near MOA and here in Clark.
Wafik said SMX Convention Center Clark will cover an area of 4,000 square meters which will have three trade halls on the ground floor and three function rooms on the second floor and 14 meeting rooms.
But Wafik said the development of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here “is the reason why we came to Clark.”
Wafik also said “the repeated requests of organizers in Manila who asked if we have anything in the north gave us the drive to come up to Clark as well as the present development here especially with the new airport terminal because we would also like to market for international events and have Clark join in the circle of events that go around and tour South East Asia.”
Madlangbayan assured mall goers of ample parking lot as plans are now afoot for the construction of steel deck parking that can accommodate up to 5,000 cars.
For his part, Mayor Garbo assured the seamless collaboration of the local government unit of Mabalacat City with the development of SMHCC.
SMX Convention Center Clark will be the second stand-alone convention center after SMX Manila.
SM City Complex here is a mere 15-minute drive to the DMIA.
