October 1, 2012, 5:46pm [ mb.com.ph ]
With about US$3 billion in investments
from different developers, Aseana City, along Roxas Boulevard and adjacent to
the SM Mall of Asia Complex, is earmarked to be another booming mixed-use
district of Metro Manila in the next five years, according to D.M. Wenceslao
& Associates, lead developer of the 204-hectare property reclaimed from
Manila Bay.
Fifteen minutes from Makati, 10
minutes from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and just a few steps from
the Baclaran transport hub, Aseana City will host hotels, residential
condominiums and leisure complexes in addition to the existing offices in the
area, according to Delfin Wenceslao, Jr., president and chairman of the firm.
The triple-A rated construction firm
has pump-primed the area, one of the few remaining large open spaces in the
metropolis, with the Aseana One office development, offering over 20,000 sqm of
leasable space across eight office floors. Aseana One is now 30 percent leased,
with the balance on offer to business process outsourcing firms.
The firm is in talks with other
companies and developers for the projects that will complement the ongoing
developments within Aseana City such as the Belle Grande Manila Bay, which will
provide 1,000 deluxe hotel rooms, and Solaire Manila with an initial 500 deluxe
rooms.
“We are carefully choosing different
locators which will complement each other and add value to the project,” said
Wenceslao recently at the Asia CEO Forum held at the Alphaland Tents in Makati.
“We are conceptualizing projects that other developers are not yet
considering.”
This project along Manila Bay is where
two of the four integrated casino and entertainment complexes is set to open by
the first half of next year. The $4-billion entertainment city will have more
than 3,500 hotel rooms and is estimated to employ 60,000 and attract one
million tourists annually.
The company recently signed Tune
Hotels of Malaysia to locate a 200-room budget hotel in the area, Wenceslao
said.
These will add to developments like
the existing Aseana One office and BPO facility, accredited as a PEZA IT zone ,
the Kings International School Manila and the Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA) passport center.
A Ford and Subaru car dealership and
the Blue Leaf Filipinas Events Center will also open in the third quarter of
2013. It will also house the embassy of the State of Qatar.
According to Sheila Lobien, director
of Jones Lang LaSalle Leechiu, exclusive leasing agents of Aseana One, the
project’s proximity to the residential areas of Cavite and Las Pinas gives it a
distinct advantage over other commercial districts.
Activity in the area will further be
enhanced with the opening of the hotels in the entertainment complexes there
including two six-star hotels and at least four integrated hotel-casinos.
Aseana City will also be the home of
developer Alphaland’s Bay City at the Aseana West District. The 32-hectare
development will have luxury residential condominiums, a marina and a retail
strip.
D.M. Wenceslao & Associates Inc.,
as lead member of R-1 Consortium Inc., reclaimed the 220-hectare property in
1989 in partnership with the Philippine Reclamation Authority.
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