Gokongweis to build mall, Go Hotel in uptown area

By Katlene O. Cacho

Friday, July 1, 2011

GOKONGWEI-led Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) hopes to begin construction of a five-hectare mixed-used development along Gen. Maxilom Ave. in Cebu City before the year ends.

RLC president and chief operations officer Frederick Go said the company is finalizing the plan for the development, which will house a shopping mall, residential condominium and Go hotel.

He declined to disclose further details of the project but said the shopping mall will be the first component to be built in the area.

“We are looking at a five-year period for the completion of the project,” he said.

RLC is the real estate arm of JG Summit Holdings Inc., one of the country’s largest conglomerates with diverse interests in branded consumer foods, agro-industrial and commodity food products, textiles, telecommunications, petrochemicals, air transportation and financial services.

Go, who was recently in Cebu to attend the 5th Regional Retailers Conference, said the company has introduced a new hotel concept, called the Go Hotels, which seeks to provide affordable and value-for-money rooms.

Go Hotel, he said, intends to become the preferred essential service hotel for businessmen and backpackers alike.

According to its website, the Go chain of hotels introduces a variable pricing scheme, commonly practiced by airlines, which rewards lowest available rates to the traveler with earlier bookings.

A typical Go Hotel, the COO said, will normally have 150 to 200 rooms. The hotel already has an existing location at Robinsons Cybergate in Mandaluyong City. Upcoming locations include Cebu, Tacloban, Dumaguete and Palawan.

RLC already has five real estate projects in Cebu, which include Aspen Heights in Liloan, Amisa in Mactan, Cebu Midtown Hotel, Robinsons Place and Robinsons Cybergate.

It recently disclosed that as of March 2011, its combined real estate and hotel revenues increase by 14 percent to P6 billion, from P5.3 billion in the same period last year. Commercial centers contributed 49 percent of its gross revenues; the residential division accounted for some 31 percent.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on July 02, 2011.