Leisure & Resorts World Corp to push Hotel 101 through despite Boracay closure

Leisure and Resorts World Corp.(LRWC) on Monday, March 19, confirmed that its casino resort hotel in the beautiful island of Boracay, in alliance Macau-based Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., is without a doubt pushing through as planned.

“A unit of LRWC has purchased approximately 23 hectares of land in Barangay Manoc-Manoc, Boracay Island, Malay, Aklan” the casino resort firm said in a regulatory filing submitted to Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) by Katrina Nepomuceno, vice president, corporate secretary and compliance officer at Leisure & Resorts World.

Consistent with the pronouncement of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) Chairperson Andrea Domingo, it is believed that the government-owned and controlled corporation will be releasing a provisional license to the Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) before the end of March, according to the filing to clarify a query from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

Late last week Domingo told the Centrio News that Galaxy Entertainment and Leisure and Resorts World will be erecting a $500-million casino resort in spite the closure of the Boracay island totally for up to one year for an environmental clean-up and rehabilitation.

“Yes, we are signing the contract for their provisional license before the end of the month,” PAGCOR brass said.

Galaxy Entertainment unveiled last December that it would be investing a whopping $500 million to build an integrated casino resort in the country.

“Upon the issuance of the said license through the partnership between LRWC and GEG, an integrated resort will be constructed in the said property,” Leisure and Resorts World said in its disclosure to PSE.

DoubleDragon Properties Corp. also plans to build the “biggest” hotel in the Philippines located in Boracay under the Hotel101 proprietary brand name.

Hotel101 Resorts-Boracay will have a total of 1,001 rooms, the most numbers of rooms in the Philippines, and will be situated on 150-hectare tourism estate of the Global-Estate Resorts Incorporated (GERI), a Megaworld Corporation subsidiary.

“We’re still in the planning and design stages that also takes time naman: on finalizing your plans and securing the permits. So it wouldn’t delay construction,” DoubleDragon chief investment officer Hannay Yulo said in an interview, in an answer to the planned closure.

Around 6.62 million foreign tourists visited the country just in 2017 alone, about 11 percent higher as compared to the 5.97 million arrivals a year earlier.