J. Amado Araneta

J. Amado Araneta
Died	November 1985 New York City, United States
Nationality	Filipino
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Araneta Center

J. Amado Araneta was a Filipino businessman and prominent member of the Araneta family. He was initially involved in sugar plantations, but invested in commercial real estate following the Second World War. He is best known for the development of the Araneta Center area in Manila, and for his influence in the Philippines both before and after the Second World War. During the latter part of the reign of President Ferdinand Marcos, Araneta lived in exile in the United States.

J. Amado Araneta was the son in law of industrialist Jorge Araneta. With his business initially involvement in sugar plantations, J. Amado changed Filipino cultural awareness in the 1930s, when he purchased two American television stations and begun broadcasting local content for the first time.

Following the Second World War, and the independence of the Philippines, Araneta began to diversify his holdings. He purchased three mills on the island of Negros and began to heavily invest in commercial real estate. He was influential in the Philippine government, acting as an informal adviser to Manuel Roxas, then President of the Philippines. He encouraged Roxas to fund the construction of the Negros mills and restore them to the same order they were in prior to the war, and in the two year leadership prior to Roxas' death, the president favoured the sugar barons such as Araneta. At the time, Araneta was acting as the main funding source for Roxas' Liberal Party.

One of Araneta's most well known projects is the development of the area known as the Araneta Center in Manila, with the Araneta Coliseum at its heart. He purchased the land required in the 1952, which at the time contained a series of radio towers, with the idea that there would be a series of landmark buildings in the area. He had identified the area as being at the crossroads of Cubao, where city people would pass daily but was underdeveloped. He began the construction of the Coliseum in 1957, with it completed in 1959 as the largest indoor stadium in the world. It opened on 16 March 1960, hosting the boxing card featuring the main event bout between Gabriel Elorde and Harold Gomes.

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