Agency adds low-budget lodges for city workers
Manila Standard
The Metro Manila Development Authority is putting up two budget inns for workers in Quezon City following its first Gwapotel near the Manila Hotel at Port Area.
Amante Salvador, chief of the Metropolitan Social Service Office, said Chairman Bayani Fernando identified one site on Quezon Avenue corner D. Tuazon Street in Barangay Doña Josefa, and the other on West Point Street along Aurora Boulevard, Cubao.
He said he recently met with the owners of the 1,800-square-meter three-story Shianghio building who were willing to go on a lease agreement for P100 per sqm monthly.
“Fernando is offering the agency’s resources to renovate the place. The owners, in return, must not charge us any. They could continue the operation after five years,” Salvador told Standard Today.
He said China Trust Bank occupied the ground level but the second and third have been deserted for sometime.
“We can convert two floors into a workers’ inn to house 720.”
Salvador said a study indicated a significant occupancy potential for another lodge.
“About 2,000 workers within the auto spare parts district of Banaue reside in Barangay Doña Josefa, while the rest are from other parts of Metro Manila and its nearby provinces.”
He also counted as clients night workers from 24-hour fast-food chains, security guards, hospital employees of the National Orthopedic Hospital and transients accompanying patients.
At the Araneta Center, Salvador said the 1,020-sqm West Point Hotel has been offered by owner Salvador Chan, a lawyer, from the second to the fourth floor with about 600-bed capacity.
A survey showed employees of establishments led by Rustan’s companies come from Bulacan and Rizal.
Fernando renovated the National Power Corp. building on Bonifacio Drive, into the first Gwapotel inn as Malacañang’s present to workers in May 2007.
The transformation of the Emmanuel Hospital on Jose Abad Santos Avenue in Manila is under way for a second Gwapotel which would be launched on Labor Day.
Salvador said the agency is targeting at least 10 inns to open before 2010.
Rio N. Araja
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