[ manilastandardtoday.com ]
Robinsons Land Corp., the real estate
unit of conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc., said it will aggressively bid for
74 hectares of the 103-hectare Food Terminal Inc. complex which the government
is set to sell in an auction Tuesday.
Robinsons Land president Frederick Go
said in an interview at the sidelines of the National Retailers Conference the
company would participate in the public auction of the government
property. “Yes we will be submitting a
bid,” he said.
Go said the company was seeking to
transform the property into a mixed-use project with retail, office and
residential developments.
Robinsons Land now has 32 shopping
malls all over the country, including the newly opened Robinsons Magnolia
located along Aurora Boulevard corner Hemady Street in Quezon City.
Robinsons Land, however, is expected
to face strong competition from other real estate firms that also wanted to
develop the FTI complex.
The government’s Privatization and
Management Office said the public auction of 74 hectares of the 103-hectare
agro-industrial complex Food Terminal Inc. in Taguig City is all set on Aug.
14, after it was postponed by almost a week to allow bidders more time to
evaluate other information about the property.
The PMO said its bids and awards
committee would start the bidding at 9 a.m. with a brief review of the bidding
procedures that would benefit the media, public sector observers, and bidders
who did not attend the pre-bid conference on July 20.
“However, bidders are aware that all
clarification should already have been submitted to the PMO BAC five calendar
days before the Aug. 14 bid submission deadline,” PMO chief Karen Singson said.
Singson said in pursuant to the
bidding rules, auction participants would have until 11:30 a.m. Tuesday to
submit their proposals to the PMO BAC in Makati City. These documents will be immediately opened
after the deadline of submission.
PMO said for the sale of the FTI
complex, the government will use a two-envelope bidding procedure where bidders
were required to submit their technical proposal separate from their price
proposal.
Singson advised participants to
synchronize their watches with the PMO clock and to send their duly authorized
representatives to attend and witness the bid proceedings.
The public auction of the FTI will be
held at AIM Conference Center Manila in Makati City.
Last month, Singson said the sale of
the industrial complex would finally push through after seven property
developers qualified for the auction.
The bidders that will try to outbid
each other include Robinson’s Land, Empire East Land, Ayala Land Inc., Rockwell
Land Corp., Century Properties Group Inc., SM Land Inc. and Filinvest Land Inc.
The government is looking to sell the
parcel of the industrial estate at a floor price of P10.2 billion, lower than
the P12-billion valuation of the property. Proceeds of the sale would go to the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and the Agriculture Department.
The government has been trying to sell
the FTI complex since 2009. Previous attempts, however, resulted in failed
biddings.
FTI is a 103-hectare agro-industrial
commercial estate that was originally built to be a food processing and
consolidation center for agricultural products. It houses more than 300
small-to-medium scale companies engaged in different industries such as
manufacturing, garments and electronics.
The PMO said of the 103-hectare
property, it would bid out only 74 hectares.
The remaining parcels will be used for other purposes.
Currently in the works is the
Integrated Bus Terminal, a joint project of the Transportation and Public Works
departments, which will be allotted five hectares within the complex. With
Maria Bernadette Lunas
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