EXPECT Cagayan de Oro to continually boom for the next three years or so. The old Lumbia airport in Cagayan de Oro City has already been earmarked by Rep.-elect Jose Benjamin Benaldo to be the next economic zone in Northern Mindanao. In fact, this will be the very first bill that the congressman-elect will file once he assumes this post come July.

According to Benaldo, it is ripe for the sprawling old Lumbia airport to be converted into an economic zone once the whole airport facilities be transferred to nearby Laguindingan in western Misamis Oriental. In fact, the area around the airport itself has already been booked by Rockwell as a state-of-the-art shopping center. The shopping mall is expected to rise in the next ten years or so. Development of the Gokongwei-owned Robinson’s Land Subdivision across the old Lumbia airport is in full swing as we speak.

On the city’s eastern hemisphere, construction is starting at the first skyscraper in Mindanao, the 21-storey Limketkai Hotel. Right near the hotel will rise a branch of Starbucks, the first of its kind in Cagayan de Oro City. Never has CDO look good with Benaldo’s winning as congressman.

THE big win of former Councilor Jose Benjamin Benaldo in the first legislative district of Cagayan de Oro City will undoubtedly mark a new era in the real estate boom of the city.

First, the very first bill that Benaldo will file into law once assuming his post as congressman come July 1 will be to convert the old Lumbia airport into an economic zone. It was learned that the airport will be rendered irrelevant by 2012 when the more state-of-the-art and safer Laguindingan international airport starts operating. Laguindingan international airport is easily navigable by pilots through even using the naked eye because and despite a thick overcast because the airport runway is the only prominent paved structure which stands out in itself and is clearly visible miles away. It is also close to the seaboard that pilots do not have to worry accidentally colliding their planes in the mountainsides.

The values of properties around Laguindingan international airport continues to rise and even multinational developers are quite interested to put up various businesses in the area – from hotels to shopping malls to residential estates. Factories are also expected to sprout the area as well as world-class resorts.