Posted on February 28, 2012 10:04:31 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
LISTED DEVELOPER Filinvest Land, Inc. has won the contract to develop a state-owned lot in Cebu City into an office complex, adding to a growing list of commercial structures the firm is looking to construct, a disclosure released yesterday showed
The lot, formerly the site of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center and the Cebu City Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, is located on Salinas Drive and will soon be occupied by a series of business process outsourcing (BPO) buildings, the Gotianun-led firm said.
Filinvest Land added it has complied with the award notice requirements for the lot from Cebu’s Economic Enterprise Council, which operates under the Office of the Governor of Cebu.
The new property is expected to add to Filinvest Land’s BPO office portfolio, which had already exceeded 170,000 square meters (sq. m.) by the end of 2011.
Vector Two, the company’s 12th building in the so-called Northgate Cyberzone office complex in Alabang, is already fully taken-up and has been turned over to tenants, Filinvest Land said in the same disclosure.
Earlier, the developer had said that it is keen on bidding for an 18,498-sq.-m., state-owned lot in the Ortigas business district for a similar BPO development, joining other rivals Robinsons Land Corp., SM Development Corp. and Ayala Land, Inc. in expressing interest.
In the meantime, Filinvest Land said the construction of the five-storey, 10,000-sq.-m. Filinvest Building across the Asian Development Bank along EDSA is underway and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Filinvest Land has been ramping up its presence in Cebu.
In addition to the ongoing construction of the commercial strip called Il Corso at the Citta di Mare in South Road Properties, two mid-rise buildings Amalfi Oasis and San Remo Oasis are currently being built under a joint-venture with the Cebu City government.
Also, the third structure of the 3.7-hectare, 10-building One Oasis Cebu is expected to be completed by yearend, Filinvest Land said.
Earlier this year, the real estate firm opened a three-star hotel in the city under the Grand Cenia Hotel and Residences brand.
Moving forward, Filinvest Land is looking to spend up to P12 billion this year, nearly similar to the amount of P12-billion capital expenditures it allotted for in 2011.
A bulk of this will be channeled toward Filinvest Land’s investments in its core residential businesses, namely the affordable and middle-income housing segments, earlier reports show.
Filinvest Land hiked its net income by 15% in the January to September period last year to P1.66 billion from P1.45 billion during the same period in 2010 on brisk real estate sales and rental income from commercial parties, latest reports show.
Shares of Filinvest Land stood unchanged yesterday at P1.20 apiece. -- F. J. G. de la Fuente
______________________________________________________________
