Philippines-based Megawide Construction Corp has dropped plans to develop a casino alongside the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
Megawide revealed in 2016 that it was planning a multi-use development on six hectares of land adjacent to the airport, stating at the time that there was an “opportunity for a casino” and that it had held discussions with a numbr of large international gaming companies.
But those plans have now been quashed with Megawide telling the Philippine Stock Exchange in a filing on Monday that it was no longer pursuing the casino project due to its proposed partner, businessman Dennis Uy, having pushed forward with his own US$300 million casino project on Mactan Island through his company Udenna Corp.
Instead, Megawide will develop three new hotels near the airport complex with construction of the first 350-room hotel to commence before the end of the year and be operational within the next two years.
“We will soon sign an agreement with an international hotel operator to manage the hotel,” Megawide’s Chief Corporate Affairs and Branding Officer Manuel Louie Ferrer told the Manila Standard.
“There is a huge demand for hotel development in Cebu as well as for MICE, particularly in Mactan.”
