Andrew Tan group to invest P36 billion in Pasay's Newport City

MANILA, Philippines - A group of local and foreign investors, led by Alliance Global Inc. of tycoon Andrew Tan, is investing around $740 million (P36 billion) until 2012 to transform the old Philippine Air Force barracks near Villamor Air Base in Pasay City into a world-class integrated tourism development, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.

The 25-hectare Newport City will feature not only residential condominiums which are mostly sold out, but will also play host to the $600-million Resorts World Manila that will occupy around 7.8 hectares.

“With Resorts World Manila, we are aiming to transform the Philippines into Asia’s next tourism powerhouse,” Travellers International Hotel Group president Kingson Sian told The STAR.

Behind Resorts World Manila is Travellers, which is 50 percent owned by Alliance Global, 40 percent by Star Cruises, and 10 percent by Megaworld. The latter chose to own 10 percent of Travellers in exchange for the land which Resorts World Manila will occupy.

Alliance Global is the parent company of Megaworld, Golden Arches (McDonalds) and Travellers International.

Star Cruises, meanwhile, is the third largest cruise line operator in the world and is part of Genting Berhad Group, one of Malaysia’s largest conglomerates and a global gaming company. Genting owns the Genting Highlands Resort-Casino in Kuala Lumpur and is building Resorts World at Sentosa which will have the world’s largest oceanarium and a Universal Studio theme park.

Following the Philippine government’s decision to deregulate the gaming industry last year, Travellers International was awarded the first private gaming license to develop, own and manage casinos, with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) as regulator. Its first casino will be located at the Resorts World Manila while the second one will be at the Pagcor City at the Reclamation Area. The first floor of the three-floor casino will be opened to the public on Aug. 28.

Sian, who is also a director of Megaworld, said all the aspects of Resorts World Manila will be available by yearend or early next year at the latest, except for the budget hotel.

Resorts World Manila will have three hotels. The first one will be the six-star 172 all-suites Maxims Hotel and Gaming Center while the second will be the 342-rooms five-star Marriott Hotel. The third will be the 1,000-room budget hotel Remington.

Aside from the three hotels, Resorts World will feature the Newport Mall which will have four high-end cinemas, four-levels of luxury brand stores, and will have a glass roofing similar to the MGM Hotels and Casinos. The Newport Theater, meanwhile, will offer world-class entertainment for the performing arts.

Sian said aside from the “live and play” aspects of Newport City, there is also the work component, highlighted by the operations of Star Cruises which have been moved from Malaysia to here. “They retrenched 500 Malaysians and moved their world operations headquarters here. From here, they can have surveillance satellites that can see all their ships anywhere in the world,” he pointed out.

He also stressed that Genting and Star Cruises are the perfect partners for this integrated tourism development, which will bring in not only a total of $740 million in investments on a once-idle government property, but also 10,000 in new employment and the potential to bring in 11 million tourists.

“This is a game changer and will put the Philippines on the global tourism map. Being in front of NAIA Terminal 3 and very near the other airport terminals, Newport City will serve as the jump-off point for other tourism destinations in the country like Boracay and Bohol. The global sales networks of both Genting and Star Cruises can help us attract more tourists into the country, And they are very familiar with junket operations,” he said. The casinos will be run by Genting Management Services.

He said the Philippines has the perfect location to be the region’s next tourism powerhouse, with a two billion market potential within a four-hour flight radius to Manila. “The country just needed the right product,” Sian emphasized.

He said the Philippines reported an all-time high of 3.14 million tourist arrivals last year and the figure is expected to grow five percent annualy from 2009-2010. “We see this as an opportunity because we are coming from a low base. The problem was that we didn’t have the right product that will attract international tourists to come,” Sian explained.

Alliance Global chairman Andrew Tan earlier said their group is investing around $1.55 billion over the next five years for its tourism programs, including building 5,000 rooms.

Sian explained that aside from the 1,500 rooms of the three hotels at Resorts World at Manila, Travellers International will build another 3,000 to 4,000 rooms at Pagcor City once they develop another tourism type of development, including a casino and hotels, there. “While here at Resorts World, we only have around eight hectares, at the Pagcor City, we will have 40 hectares,” he stressed.

As for the casino that will occupy the first three floors of Maxims Hotel, Sian said the casino will occupy a total of 30,000 square meters and will have 300 table and 1,000 slot machines.

“We expect around 10,000 people to play here every day and that around 65 percent of our guests will be local and the rest, foreign. We are investing money to expand the market and attract tourists. We do not want to just take away customers from the Pagcor casinos. While there may be high rollers who will move to our casinos, we expect the bulk of our market to be local tourists who have never entered casinos and who want to play on weekends while their family is engaged in some other activity here at Newport City.”