Megaworld, a unit of Alliance Global Group, announced a new township for the city of Laoag in Ilocos Norte Province. Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg
Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg
Philippine spirits and property tycoon Andrew Tan will build a luxury resort and township in Laoag, a provincial capital 488 kilometers north of Manila, in anticipation of a travel and property boom.
Tan’s Megaworld will spend about 15 billion pesos ($261 million) in the next decade to develop an 84-hectare property along Laoag’s western coastline into a “premium mixed-use beachfront township,” the company said in a statement. It’s Megaworld’s first project in the northern region of the country’s main island of Luzon but its 34th in the Philippines.
“We see a lot of opportunities in this part of the country especially on tourism,” said Kevin Tan, the billionaire’s heir and CEO of Alliance Global Group, parent of Megaworld, in the statement. “We hope to unlock these opportunities.”
Ilocandia Coastown, as the development will be named, will be 15 minutes from Laoag International Airport and 30 minutes from the historic Paoay Church, built during the Spanish colonial period, which is one of the region’s main tourist attractions. The project has its own 1.4-kilometer beach, including an area of sand dunes, another tourist draw to the area.
With the project, Megaworld will have a presence in the country’s three fastest growing regions, according to President Lourdes Gutierrez-Alfonso.
Laoag is part of the Ilocos Region, which in April was named by the Philippine Statistics Authority as the nation’s third fastest growing economy after the Central Visayas and Western Visayas. Megaworld has projects in both the latter regions.
Ilocandia Coastown will feature Philippine and Spanish architecture and offer upscale residences, a shopping district and its own town center, according to Megaworld.
Aside from Megaworld, Alliance Global owns Andrew Tan’s interests in Emperador, owner of Bodegas Fundador, Spain’s oldest and largest maker of brandy, as well as Golden Arches, the Philippine franchisee of McDonald’s. The older Tan has a net worth of about $1.9 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time data.
Kevin Tan is a friend of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his wife. Marcos once served as governor of Ilocos Norte province, whose capital is Laoag, and also as a congressman from the province.
