A SOUTH Korean businessman is spending $110 million (P5.1 billion) to put up a Marriott Hotel in Clarkfield, Pampanga, the first five-star hotel in the central part of Luzon.
Daesik Han, president and CEO of Widus International Leisure Inc., has signed a hotel-management agreement with Renaissance Hotels International Corp. Ltd., the firm that owns the Marriott chain of hotels.
Han said the facility called Marriott at Clark will break ground by May next year and will open its doors during the second or third quarter of 2018.
The hotel, which will have 260 rooms, will be built on a 3.2-hectare lot near to Widus Hotel and Casino, which Han also operates.
“The $60 million will be our investment for the hotel and the rest of the $40 million to $50 million will be for recreation and entertainment facilities,” Han said.
“I don’t want to call it a five-star hotel. But it will be a high-end hotel that will cater to tourists and businessmen,” he said.
The hotel will have a total of 15 floors and several food and beverage outlets, urban coffee, noodle bar, Korean restaurant. Han said he plans to import all of the soju brands in Korea to serve his guests.
“Marriott will serve the high-end market. And we [Widus] will focus on the middle market,” Han said.
He said the hotel will not have a casino and other gambling facilities, but he plans to expand the gaming tables and electronic-gaming machines in the adjacent Widus Hotel, a facility that served some of the delegates of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, which held the first of its series of meetings in Clarkfield during the early part of the year.
“We will double the current 52 gaming tables and 250 machines that we have,” Han said.
He said the development is just the first phase of his investment in Marriott, but the next phases will depend on the political climate and how the government will be able to develop the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clarkfield as a major hub of the country.
The next phase of investments will be upward $300 million since it will expand on the development.
Widus International began operating in Clarkfield in 2008 but it was then called as Hotel Vida, mainly servicing the Korean clientele.
It changed its name to the current one, and expanded its hotel and gaming facilities.