published May 19, 2009 in BusinessWorld
TACLOBAN — The Singaporean-backed LKY Property Holdings, Inc. will invest P300 million to upgrade the MacArthur Park Beach Resort Hotel in Palo, Leyte.
LKY President Wilbert Lee signed a 25-year contract last week with the Leyte provincial government for the takeover and rehabilitation of the 43-room resort, previously run by the local government.
Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla, who signed the contract with LKY, said the signing of the contract was moved to last week because the resort had to honor bookings made until the second week of May.
Mr. Lee said the existing structure would be demolished. A new five-star hotel will rise on the site, expected to open toward the end of the second quarter of next year.
"We would need that much time because we will be building a hotel with international standards," Mr. Lee said in an interview aired over the weekly radio program of the provincial government.
Previously, LKY acquired the Mayon Imperial Hotel in Legaspi City, Albay.
The Leyte provincial government has been aggressively trying to attract hotel investments to keep up with the increasing demand for accommodations in Leyte. Large groups had been discouraged from holding their conferences in Leyte because of the lack of hotels and other tourist facilities, Mr. Petilla said.
The governor added that it would be best for the private sector to build and operate hotels. "It has been tried and tested that if it is the government that runs a facility, more often, it loses [money]," he said.
The provincial government, which took over the management of MacArthur resort in January from the Philippine Tourism Authority, had been subsidizing the resort’s operational expenses at P400,000 a month.
An executive order issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in October last year transferred the hotel to the provincial government.
The resort is just a few meters away from the MacArthur Landing Memorial in historic Red Beach, site of one of the greatest naval battles in history. It was built by former first lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos and sequestered by the government after the Edsa Revolution in 1986.-S.Q. Meniano
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