09/27/2011 [ tribune.net.ph ]
Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) will launch another major development in the Makati area, the Sta. Ana area as its entertainment district by 2012.
Vice president for strategic land banking group Anna Bautista-Dy said the group is envisioning Sta. Ana to be an entertainment district in Makati which why they would also like to take advantage of it being near a river.
“We’re really excited about that. Obviously, the Pasig River needs some work but we are long term planners. But again, we should be ready for launching by 2012 and right now we’re in the process of planning the idea as an entertainment district,” she said.
She also noted that they are planning the project to be a little more of an outdoor oriented retail, entertaining component “We’d like more live performances, gathering spaces around, more of a river facing, a boardwalk along the river,” Bautista-Dy said.
On infusing a gaming component in the project, she said the group has not yet finalized its plans and is still thinking about it.
For the redevelopment program, she said Phase I is due to open third to fourth quarter of 2012, on schedule. “As far as the residential development is concerned, we launched our second tower and are close to launching our third tower. The two BPOs and the hotel, Holiday Inn, are scheduled to open by next year. The mall will be ready by Christmas season 2012,” she added.
We will already have office buildings in the Phase I, combined about 13 storeys of office towers. One of the things we’re really doing in the redevelopment is intensifying the mixed-use nature. It’s really built on a very retail oriented historically so what we’re doing is increasing the multi-use of the center which is why it is important for us to put in the retail, on top of the retail the hotel, the offices and the residential.
For the Bus Rapid Transit, which would be in the P1 billion in terms of investment, Bautista-Dy noted that it is an initiative primarily of Makati Commercial Estate Association (Macea) which is like a homeowners association except that they own commercial lots. “It’s really their initiative and they recently submitted an unsolicited proposal to the DoTC, so it’s primarily a Macea initiative and we’re really more a minority interest if you put it that as far as the project is concerned,” Bautista-Dy said.
She noted that with the change in leadership in DoTC, the project has been caught in that as well. However, she said Macea has committed to support that project and has gone as far as submitting a BOT proposal to the DoTC.
“So we’re just awaiting a word back from DoTC. But it’s really one of those things we feel that with organized and streamlined public transit it can really transform the city because we all know that it’s important, it just need to be done in a more streamlined and organized manner,” she said.
The BRT system would run from end to end of Ayala Business District and a little beyond but the two feeder lines — the LRT on Pasay City side and the MRT on the Edsa side. “We’re hoping that all forms of transit will form of a feeder to the BRT.
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