CLI to develop Citadines hotel in Bacolod

Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI), a property developer focused on the Visayas-Mindanao market, is expanding its hospitality portfolio with a new deal to build a 200-room Citadines hotel in Bacolod which is opening by 2021.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, CLI said it had signed a service management agreement with The Ascott Limited to develop the first Citadines-branded hotel in Bacolod.

This is CLI’s fourth project with Ascott, the world’s leading service residence operator.

This will bring to 969 rooms CLI’s hotel portfolio. The property developer has four other hotel projects—Citadines Cebu City, Citadines Paragon Davao, Lyf Cebu City, and Radisson Red in Mandaue City.

“CLI sees a lot of opportunities in Bacolod,” company president Jose Soberano III said in a statement after the contract signing on Tuesday.

“Our growth in this city—and in the rest of VisMin—will hinge on tourism as well as the IT-BPM (information technology-business process management) industry—both drivers of the region’s economy.”

“Cebu Landmasters is very credible,” said Arthur Gindap, Ascott’s regional general manager for the Philippines and Thailand. “With its track record and deep knowledge of the VisMin market, we are happy to partner with them again for our fourth service residence project, and our first in Bacolod City.”

Citadines Bacolod will have unit sizes ranging from 25 to 60 square meters. It will also have a 1,000-square-meter grand ballroom, ample parking space and an amenity deck on the third floor featuring a swimming pool, gym, game room and restaurants.

The Citadines brand caters to young professionals with its vibrant contemporary vibe. It is pitched to be a stylish hotel for business and leisure travelers.

Jose Pedro Recio of Rchitects Inc., one of the country’s leading architectural firms, will design the service residence that will rise on a prime 4,501-sqm lot along Lacson Street in front of MesaVirre Garden Residences, CLI’s first project in the city.

Construction of Citadines Bacolod will start by the last quarter of this year.

“There is so much potential to cater not only to the tourism industry but also the M.I.C.E (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibits) market in Bacolod,” Soberano added.

CLI—recently cited as one of BCI Asia’s Top 10 Developers in the Philippines and the only one from the VisMin region to join this roster—expects Citadines Bacolod to become the leading provider of accommodations in the area when it opens in 2021. Soberano observed that during the weekdays, business travelers related to Bacolod’s growing IT-BPM industry were also expected to boost hotel occupancy.

Cebu Landmasters’ optimism is further supported by the Bacolod city government’s plan to build more tourism infrastructure projects in the area. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA