CEBU CITY—Bluewater Resorts said it has signed another management contract to handle the operations of JJ’s Seafood Village in Tagbilaran, Bohol—its second foray into hospitality property management.
“[The owners] requested us to manage it and improve the facilities,” Bluewater Hospitality Management Inc. CEO Julie Alegrado-Vergara told reporters in a press conference during the recent grand launch of Once Central Hotel in Cebu.
JJ’s Seafood Village began in 1975 with a small stall selling snacks by the Caturza Family. The venture eventually grew into a well-known dimsum and seafood restaurant.
Strategically located beside the Tagbilaran Bay, this accommodation facility is complete with dining and function rooms that cater to the local market for its weddings, family get-together, seminars and other events.
Vergara said they would like to retain the hotel’s identity known for through the years and at the same time, infuse something new that will align it with the Bluewater brand.
“We’re still in the planning stage. But we’re looking forward to the reopening of that property, hopefully, in the next year or two,” she added.
While the hotel’s existing structures will be retained, the hospitality management arm of Bluewater Resorts will renovate and expand it further to accommodate more guests on the back of the booming tourism and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions industries in the region.
“We want to re-do the convention [area], the rooms, etc., so that it will be competitive,” Bluewater Resorts VP for Sales and Marketing Margie F. Munsayac told the BusinessMirror in a sideline interview.
“Maybe in the next few months, we already have to strategize on how we will position the property in Tagbilaran,” she added.
Prior to JJ’s Seafood Village, Bluewater Hospitality managed the newly launched One Central Hotel in downtown Cebu, a premier business accommodation facility that offers 157 rooms, meeting rooms, a grand ballroom and other top amenities and facilities.
Apart from these two managed properties, Bluewater Resorts owns and operates the Bluewater Panglao in Bohol and two resorts in Cebu, namely the Bluewater Maribago and Bluewater Sumilon.
The homegrown Cebuano resort chain has three properties in Mindanao: Almont Beach Resort in Surigao; and Almont City Hotel and Almont Inland Resort in Butuan.
“Our focus is really in the Visayas and Mindanao areas. We would like to expand that eventually and hopefully also in Luzon,” Alegrado-Vergara said.