Davao City’s oldest hotel bares expansion plans

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The company running the Apo View Hotel is spending P280 million to fund a long-needed upgrade for Davao City’s oldest operating hotel, which went through legal battles and a foreclosure threat over the years.

Edmundo G. Las, managing director of Eurotel, said at least P150 million of the budget had been remitted to the contractors.

“We have to maintain the legend but inside we have to infuse a new design,” Las said in a press conference on Thursday, October 19.

The management of Apo View Hotel was transferred to the Icon Hotel group of Eurotel in 2016 from the Pamintuan family.

Las, also chief executive officer of the Hotel Sogo Chain, said the new management is keen on improving its facilities and the food it serves to its clients.

“The facade stays,” he explained.

At the sidelines of Apo View Hotel’s relaunch on Thursday, Las also said Eurotel is looking into constructing another hotel and a condominium within the hotel’s 9,000 square meter-property.

“We’re looking at 6 floors. This will be compete to one another but it will cater to a different level of hotel clientele,” he said.

Eurotel’s plans for one of Davao City’s premium landmark drew elation from Department of Tourism Region 11 Director Roberto Alabato III, who on Thursday noted how residents here associate the hotel with Davao’s upscale nightlife in the past.

“We’re thankful that Apo View is looking at the past (as well),” said Alabado who was referring to the management’s strategy in revamping the hotel.

The 156-room hotel is considered a premium landmark, being the oldest operating hotel here. It hosts Davao’s oldest casino, the Casino Filipino Players club.

It was Davao City’s Pamintuan family who started Apo View Hotel as a lodging facility for businessmen in 1948, few years after the Battle of Davao, when Filipino guerillas and US forces fought together against Japanese forces.

The Pamintuan family, now the hotel’s former operator, faced legal battles against its then-creditor, Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank, which threatened to foreclose their property over a P270 million loan which rose to more than P300 milllion after the bank claimed the management did not comply with its obligation.

Years later in 2010, the former operator won its case against the bank, which would later be ordered to be closed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. – Rappler.com