Saying goodbye
We bid adieu to a Makati landmark as InterContinental Hotel Manila closes its doors
The rumour that Hotel InterContinental Manila was closing had been going around for a couple of years at least. And so, when the first international hotel chain in Makati finally announced it was closing on the 31st of December 2015, no one was surprised—but everyone was saddened.
Foie gras at Prince Albert and Crepe Samurai at the Jeepney Bar, disco at Where Else? and dinner theatres then ballroom dancing at the Bahia, the 365 Club that was a pivotal venue for the first People’s Revolution—pleasures and memories that belong only to Hotel InterContinental Manila, contributed to the collective sadness over its closure. Another structure whose 50-year lease from Ayala lapsed. And though iconic (having been built and designed by the National Artist Leandro Locsin) and rock solid (with a foundation built so strong and so deep by the American engineering company Bechtel), the hotel on 1 Ayala Avenue had to give way to yet a new Ayala vision.
“It was a very special hotel, starting with the address,” said Christian Pirodon, the area general manager of IHG Philippines on whose watch the sad milestone transpired. “There is no No 2 Ayala Avenue. The next address is No 6750.”
Pirodon is the only GM of the hotel who has served for three terms: 1991-96, 2004-08, and 2010 to the present. He is staying on, however. At the helm of the InterContinental Hotel Groups (IHG), he still oversees the operations of the Holiday Inn & Suites Makati, among other properties. “There will be more projects coming up,” he said, “and hopefully, a new InterCon.”
While the possibility of the InterCon resurrecting is certainly welcome news to many, no one will be more delighted if this ever happens than Pirodon. For he has no plans of staying anywhere else. “The Philippines is my home. I am Pinoy. This is where I live and this is where I will die,” he said.