DAVAO CITY — The Royal Mandaya Hotel, one of the oldest and biggest in the city, is planning to build a third tower with a three-level parking area and a helipad for VIP guests.
The new 25-storey building will occupy the hotel’s existing parking area and commercial space.
“We are now preparing the third tower… We are already doing the initials,” Royal Mandaya General Manager Benjamin J. Banzon, Jr. said in an interview, adding there is no target date yet for the start of construction.
“No timeline yet as we are still studying the project,” he said.
“It would be the place that will address one of the weaknesses of the hotel, which is the parking area because we will be putting three floors depending on the requirements of having the numbers of rooms against the available slot for the parking,” Mr. Banzon said.
The Royal Mandaya currently has 181 rooms, and the third building is being considered to have about 120. Its facilities include a ballroom and a recently renovated cafe-restaurant.
“The vision of putting this (restaurant) extension is already in our blueprint way back then and has now became a reality… The coffee shop has been rundown already and outdated and with the increased number of guests and revenue, they finally invested for the expansion and renovation,” said architect James Jao.
Royal Mandaya is also planning to upgrade the poolside restaurant.
“For 19 years, it’s the only area that we considered untouched. That would be our next physical area for development,” he said.
In July this year, the Escandor Group of Companies that owns the hotel acquired another establishment in the downtown area, the Royal House Travel Inn and Suites owned by the Nograles family.
The property, which has been renamed Davao Royal Suites and Residences, has undergone a P14.5-million refurbishment, but is being eyed for conversion into a mixed-use high-rise building.
Mr. Banzon said they plan to maximize the height limit in the area and, if given approval by the city government, will go for a 35-floor building.
“We are still on our time frame for three years. Now we are reviewing and analyzing. The original plan is a mixed-use development, a combination of hotel, commercial and condo. Since we already agreed on that particular project, now we are now defining on how much space are we giving for the condo, space for the hotel, and space for the commercial,” he said. — Maya M. Padillo
