AN estimated 10,000 direct and indirect jobs would be generated once the country’s biggest commercial complex and the fifth casino project inside the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s (Pagcor) 100-hectare Entertainment City opens this year and in 2022.
Property developer Ayala Land Inc. is set to open later in 2018 a new mall that will give it a commanding presence in the Las Vegas-style gaming strip along Manila Bay.
The upcoming shopping center is located within a 9-hectare complex at the Aseana City adjacent to Entertainment City.
Apart from the mall, other developments include a hotel and an office building for business-process outsourcing firms.
Hong Kong-listed Landing International Development Ltd. is set to break the ground for its $1.5-billion resort and casino project called Nayon Landing on August 7.
Pagcor recently issued a provisional gaming license to Landing to build an integrated resort within Entertainment City.
“This investment is an ideal opportunity for us to strategically expand Landing’s footprint into Southeast Asia, hence taking a major step toward Landing International’s aspiration to be a leading premium integrated resort operator in the region,” Landing Chairman Yang Zhihui said.
The local government unit (LGU) of Parañaque welcomed the foreign investor, whose entertainment and gaming facility will soon rise within its area of jurisdiction.
Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez said this is a “very positive development for the city in terms of job creation, revenue and tourism.”
The upcoming entertainment and gaming facility, which carries in its name Nayon, meaning “small village” in Filipino, boasts of Asia’s first and largest “indoor movie-based theme park” when it becomes operational in the next five years.
Other features include a casino, an indoor cultural theme park, a water park, a convention center, luxury hotels, and retail and dining spaces.
This fifth casino resort project will add to the three integrated resorts currently operating within Entertainment City, namely, Solaire Resort and Casino of Bloomberry, City of Dreams Manila of Melco and Okada Manila of Universal Entertainment.
Fourth locator Malaysian developer Genting is also developing a resort dubbed Westside City Resorts World in the 120-hectare reclaimed land area.
Yang said Nayon Landing will leverage on their growing brand equity in Jeju Shinhwa World—a casino resort they operate in Jeju, South Korea—“to attract more Koreans and tourists in the region to visit the Philippines.”
Olivarez said the city is on track to meet its revenue target of more than P6 billion soon, when Ayala Malls opens at the latter part of this year and Nayon Landing in 2022.
City Administrator Ding Soriano said they can also raise enough funds to finance infrastructure projects and their commitments on education, health and other forms of social services without increasing the city’s taxes.
He said the hotel and casinos will not only generate income for the city and tourism revenues, but will also create job opportunities for local residents, as the law stipulates they comprise at least 40 percent of the work force of new establishments.
Soriano said Parañaque now has savings of P3.9 billion due to growing businesses in the gaming complex.
Other city officials also expressed optimism the LGU will attract more investments next year, following a recent sisterhood agreement with the city of Haeundae, South Korea, and the city of Carson, California, in the United States, whose council members visited the city this year. Carson City is host to a significant Filipino expatriate community.