CEBU CITY, Sept. 19 (PNA) — The JPark Island Resort Cebu in Lapu-Lapu City, formerly known as the Imperial Palace, will invest P1.2 billion to bring its water park facilities to Luzon in 2015.
JPark Island Resort president Justin S. Uy said the project will sit in an eight-hectare property in Sta. Rosa, Laguna and will retain the name JPark Island Resort.
“We’re still in the drawing stage now. We are planning to have it early next year but the completion will probably take 18 months,” Uy said.
The newest addition to JPark’s portfolio will have 150 rooms, smaller than the existing facility in Lapu Lapu City, which has 556 rooms.
The room rates in Sta. Rosa, according to Uy, will be lower than JPark in Lapu Lapu City because the former will only be a three- or four-star hotel.
0n June 1 this year, Philippine BXT Corp, the company running and managing the Imperial Palace, officially rebranded the facility to JPark Island Resort Cebu.
The move, according to officials, was to position JPark Island Resort as a property not only limited to a resort and hotel, but also as a waterpark and amusement park.
In the past three years, Philippine BXT Corp franchised the Imperial Palace brand and personally ran and managed the facility.
“We were initially managed by Imperial Palace of Korea for the first two years but after that we managed it but we still used Imperial as a franchise. Starting June 1 of this year, we were finally strong enough to come up with our own identity, we are now called JPark, which we can call our own, a Filipino brand,” Uy said.
JPark is a combination of Uy’s first name and his Korean partner’s name Park Yong Jun.
Park serves as chairman of Philippine BXT Corp.
Uy said that the company is also planning to set up hotels and resorts in Boracay and Bohol but no definite plans yet as to when.
The official also welcomed the possibility of international expansion. (PNA)