Davao City-based businessman Dennis Uy expressed interest to team up with Megawide Construction Corp. to develop a four-hectare property adjacent to the Mactan Cebu International Airport into a mixed-use real estate project with hotel and gaming components.
Megawide chief marketing officer Louie Ferrer said in an interview at the sidelines of the annual stockholders’ meeting that Uy’s Udenna Corp. was one of the four groups that expressed interest in the Megawide project.
Megawide said it would select a partner for the project within the year.
Udenna is already building a $300-million integrated resort and casino on Punto Engaño Peninsula in Lapu-Lapu City. “This will complement his casino,” Ferrer said.
Meanwhile, Megawide said it was interested in getting a foreign partner for the proposed $1-billion East-West Railway project, a 9.77-kilometer railway from Diliman, Quezon City along the corridor of Quezon Avenue to España Boulevard in Manila.
Megawide president Edgar Saavedra said the company planned to get a foreign partner with expertise in railway operations to help operate the project.
Saavedra said the company would introduce a new technology for the construction of an elevated rail system and would also apply a different strategy in implementing the project.
The company’s move to venture into transport projects such as mass railway transit, aside from developing airport and road projects, is a part of the group’s diversification strategy.
Megawide acquired in July a controlling stake in a consortium that will build an elevated railway linking Quezon City and Manila.
East-West Rail Transit Corp. agreed to give Megawide the right to participate in the unsolicited project as an additional consortium member with the right to acquire up to 60 percent of the special purpose vehicle for the project.
Other members of the consortium are ERTWC and Malaysian firm MTD Alloy.
Megawide said it would also pursue an unsolicited P209-billion proposal for the 50-year development of Manila-Cebu International Airport.
The proposed project will have three phases, including the rehabilitation of MCIA’s existing runway and taxiways, construction of a second parallel and independent runway which will significantly increase airside capacity and construction of a third terminal to accommodate additional passengers.
It is also keen on bidding for the Clark Airport project slated later this year and other infrastructure projects that the government may bid out.
Megawide also expressed interest in investing in sewerage treatment facilities and is in talks with local government units for possible partnerships.
Aside from MCIA, other infrastructure projects undertaken by Megawide are the School Infrastructure Project, which entailed the construction of almost 10,000 classrooms across Luzon and Southwest Integrated Transport System, the country’s first integrated land transport hub which will have a connection to LRT Line 1.