Amid the frenzy of activities in this year’s Sandugo season, Lite Port Center, a modern strip mall located along Gallares Street, this city, had its Grand Launch and Blessing on Friday, July 21, 2017.
The event was graced by Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador “Sal” Panelo, who cut the ceremonial ribbon along with the Lite Properties matriarch, Mrs. Filomena Enerio-Lim. Also present during the launch were Miss Earth Philippines 2017 Karen Ibasco and Ms. Philippines Earth-Ecotourism Vanessa Mae Castillo while Fr. Joseph Skelton of the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish church led the blessing rites.
Strategically situated a stone’s throw away from the Tagbilaran Seaport, Lite Port has become the city’s latest chic hub and the first of its kind to give Boholanos a unique open public space to converge and relax with an assortment of restos, cafes and entertainment options.
“While malls have mushroomed in the city in recent years,it lacks a place where people can unwind after 10 p.m. We are positioning Lite Port in that area, as we want to redefine fun and dining,” reveals Lite Shipping CEO and President Lucio E. Lim, Jr.
The shipping line founder has also foreseen the requirement for an accessible, convenient and hassle-free one-stop tourist service area; hence the establishment of the Lite Port Tourist Center.
To formally open soon, the fully air-conditioned center will offer shipping and airline ticketing, travel and tour assistance, business and remittance center, and bags & luggage safekeeping while it has premium restrooms, shower rooms and even a prayer room.
For now, Lite Port’s anchor tenant is 7-Eleven, the go-to convenience store that is open 24 hours a day and where people flock for food, drinks, snacks, hot and cold beverages, and other grocery items.
With seventy percent occupied out of the total 3,600 sq.m. rentable space, Boholanos can look forward to more dining options such as a Japanese and Italian restaurant as well as fitness and entertainment centers, a sports gym and karaoke bar.
But there’s something more than what meets the eye about Lite Port.
“This area has sentimental value,” disclosed Mr. Jun Lim. “It used to be the ancestral house and the rice mill of my late grandparents, the Limtiacos, who owned Bohol’s biggest rice mill then and it was also in this place where my father met a freak accident.”
Lucio Guy Lim, Sr. is known as the first Chinese Certified Public Accountant in the province and was manager of the Limtiaco Rice and Corn Mill prior to his passing.
However, the business acumen was carried on by his sons, Richard and Jun, who created the family’s first business in 1984, Lirio Enterprises, which was engaged in salt trading. A few years later, Lite Shipping Corporation was established that has provided employment to hundreds of Boholanos. To date, the shipping line has a fleet of some 26 cargo and passenger shipping vessels.