Posted on 09:18 PM, June 01, 2010 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
LOPEZ-led Rockwell Land Corp., the high-end property development arm of the Lopez group, will not launch new projects this year as the real estate firm completes the construction of ongoing residential projects.
New projects might start next year, Oscar M. Lopez, outgoing chairman and chief executive of First Philippine Holdings Corp., said in a recent interview.
“It is good not to tackle too many things,” Mr. Lopez said.
Rockwell Land Corp., which was set up in 1995 after the shutdown of the thermal power plant of the Lopez group, is 51%-owned by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and 49% by First Holdings.
“We have several [projects]. We have the Grove and then we have Edades,” Mr. Lopez said.
The 5.5-hectare, P10-billion The Grove on C-5 Road in Pasig will have six high-rise towers housing a total of 2,000 condominium units.
Meanwhile, the Edades residential tower, a serviced apartment building, will rise on a 4,000-square-meter lot in Makati.
“Those are the latest projects. The ones that are about to finish [include] One Rockwell, it should be finished by next year,” he added.
This project is composed of two high-rise towers near the Power Plant Mall in Makati.
Rockwell Land recorded a net income of P633.5 million last year on the back of P4.1 billion in revenues.
Flagship project Rockwell Center sits on a 15.5-hectare site in Makati, adjacent to the business districts of Makati, Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, and Ortigas.
The self-contained, mixed-use community consists of seven high-rise residential towers, three office buildings, a shopping mall, a city club, and a business school.
For the new projects, Mr. Lopez said the firm was looking at “residential condominiums, both high-end and middle-end.”
Mr. Lopez, the 80-year-old patriarch of the Lopez clan, will step down as head of First Holdings on June 12. Mr. Lopez has been chairman and chief executive of the listed holding company since April 1986.
Shares in First Holdings -- which recorded a P24.6-billion profit in the first quarter due to a one-time gain from the sale of its stake in Meralco -- shed P2.50 yesterday to close at P56.00 apiece. -- N. J. C. Morales
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