DAVAO CITY—The Filipino-owned Eurotel Group, which acquired the iconic 70-year-old Apo View Hotel in this city, said it would construct one of three high-rise residential towers inside the compound of the landmark hotel here to cater to the high-end traveling market.
The first of the planned Apo View Residences tower would be constructed at the former garden area at the side portion of the compound and would have 600 condominium units.
Edmundo G. Las, managing director of Eurotel, Icon and Sogo Group, said the tower could go as high as the city’s height limit could allow.
The height limit has been imposed to allow safe and unhampered passage of aircraft to and from the Davao International Airport located barely 10 kilometers northeast of downtown. The city government has allowed as high as 37 stories at the downtown area. Early this year, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio directed a study to disallow high-rise structures in the downtown area over traffic-congestion consideration.
Las said the group has invested P330 million to acquire and refurbish Apo View Hotel, a beloved landmark in this city.
The residential towers would have their rooms designed differently from the common condominium rooms, the hotel group assured, saying the interiors would be its selling attraction to clients looking for units in the city.
Las said the hotel may cater to the mixed market for the meantime, but later it would be positioned to absorb the high-end clientele of CEOs and foreigners and foreign business executives.
“The residences would cater to the other income brackets, including the Mindanao market, who would have options to pick the differently priced accommodation units,” he said.
“If the market responds according to our projection, we would proceed with the construction of two other towers,” he added. The two towers would rise from the parking lot area currently at the front portion of the entrance to the 180-room hotel.
The entire hotel compound is almost one hectare “and it could accommodate the three towers,” he said.
But he believed the Davao hotel and residences market “has not been saturated and there is still a lot more room for this kind of business.”
He said the hotel group would likely bring sooner its Sogo Hotels for the average and lower-end market to cater to the transients and budget travelers and local visitors.
The Apo View Hotel is its latest acquisition in Mindanao from the Pamintuan family. The Eurotel, Icon and Sogo Group has 60 hotels and mixed-use accommodation establishments in the country. It has set its eyes to acquire three or four hotels per year.
At 70 years old, Apo View Hotel is acknowledged to be the second-oldest hotel in the country, next only to the Manila Hotel.