Westside City budget up by 80% to P121B

The group of property tycoon Andrew Tan has committed a higher capital spending budget of P121 billion for the 31-hectare Westside City, the last of the four integrated gaming resorts to rise at the metropolis’ version of the Las Vegas strip along Manila Bay.

Tan’s property arm Megaworld Corp. unveiled on Tuesday a P54-billion increase in capital outlay in its Westside City project in Parañaque’s Pagcor Entertainment Complex for the next 10 years. The initial budget announced in 2015 was only P10 billion.

The expansion in capital expenditures will be mostly for new residential and hotel projects, riding on strong demand for property inventory in the area.

Megaworld’s affiliate, Travellers International Hotels Group Inc., developer and operator of the Resorts World brand in the Philippines, has separately committed to invest $1.1 billion, or roughly P57 billion, to build the Westside City Resorts World complex.

The higher budget earmarked by Megaworld thus brings the Andrew Tan group’s combined capital expenditure for the township to P121 billion or 80 percent higher than the original commitment.

“While a big portion of Westside City will be handled by Travellers International, Megaworld is pouring in a huge amount of money to expand our residential and hotel offerings within the township. The demand is high and we want to tap every available opportunity in this booming side of the Metro,” Megaworld senior vice president and treasurer Francis Canuto said in a statement.

Using the higher budget, Megaworld plans to build two new homegrown hotel brands in Westside City, just in time for the initial opening of the casino complex in 2021. These are the 529-room Kingsford Hotel and the 685-room Grand Westside Hotel, which will be conveniently linked to the casino complex and offer panoramic views of Manila Bay.

“We give our all-out support for the country’s growing tourism industry. Providing more hotel options will further boost tourist arrivals especially in this growth area,” Canuto said.

Aside from the hotels, Megaworld is also building the 15-tower Bayshore Residential Resorts and the four-tower Gentry Manor. So far, Westside City has about 4,000 units of residential inventory worth P50 billion.

Based on its master plan, Westside City will also have a luxury mall as well as a wide array of leisure and entertainment facilities. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA