By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Megaworld Corporation, the country’s largest developer of integrated urban townships, led the lighting ceremony of their Christmas Village at the Forbes Hill in Northill Gateway located at the boundary of Bacolod City and Talisay City over the weekend.
The 15-hectare Forbes Hill, Bacolod City’s premier residential village, marks the merriest time of the year as it dazzles in a spectacle of lights, Christmas trees and lighted parols.
Harold Geronimo, Senior Assistant Vice President & Head for Public Relations and Media Affairs for Megaworld, said the parols were all handcrafted by inmates of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
The Christmas icons were made part of the attraction to support the inmates’ livelihood program.
The attraction, which is located at The Clubhouse in Forbes Hill after residential lots, ranging from 449 square meters up to 861 square meters, were recently sold out.
The village only hosts less than 200 lots and offers fantastic and refreshing views of the Negros mountains and the surrounding sugarcane plantations.
Future residents will also be welcomed by wide, open spaces, and roads soon to be lined by trees, both evoking an uncanny resemblance to Europe’s stunning courtyards and neighborhoods.
There is also an iconic giant fountain surrounded by a garden just outside the village’s gates, reminiscent of the water fountains found in many centuries-old Negros mansions owned by sugar barons.
The property giant also recently announced the exciting news that the first-ever McDonald’s NXTGen store in Negros Occidental will be coming soon to Northill Gateway.
The first-of-its-kind store will be located a mere few steps away from the main gate of Forbes Hill and just beside the iconic Las Vegas-inspired Bacolod City Welcome Marker – another first in the Philippines.
Jennifer Palmares-Fong, Megaworld Visayas’ vice president for sales and marketing, said they are excited to have their own unique and first-in-the province McDonald’s NXTGen store right in front of their Forbes Hill residential village.
“This will really make the entire township even more promising as this heralds the start of our vibrant commercial developments within Northill Gateway. Our plan is to open this Megaworld-owned store just in time for Christmas,” she said.
The store, which is just less than 20 minutes away from the Bacolod-Silay Airport, will also have a green wall, an expansive al fresco dining area, its own McCafe, and the city’s first-ever “Bike and Dine” facility./DGB, WDJ