By Ray Eñano
| Posted on Aug. 01, 2013 at 12:01am | manilastandardtoday.com
Philippine
property companies this early are taking advantage of the publicity being
generated by the proposed Cavite-Laguna Expressway project that will link the
Manila-Cavite Expressway and South Luzon Expressway in the south.
Real estate
agents and broker companies have printed handouts highlighting the proximity of
their property projects to the 47-kilometer road project. The P35.6-billion
project has now become a major come-on for prospective home and lot buyers
interested in settling along the periphery of the toll road.
Ayala Land
Inc., the country’s biggest property developer, was among the first builder to
express interest in the project, along with infrastructure companies San Miguel
Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
Ayala Land is
developing several properties in Cavite and Laguna that will have access to the
Calax. The four-lane road will start from the CavitEx in Kawit, Cavite and end
at the SLEX-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna. It will have interchanges
in nine locations, namely Kawit, Daang Hari, Governor’s Drive, Aguinaldo
Highway, Silang, Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay, Laguna Blvd., Technopark and a toll
barrier before SLEX.
Calax and its
interchanges, for one, will provide access to
Ayala Land Premier’s projects, namely Santierra at Nuvali, Ayala
Westgrove Heights, Ayala Greenfield Estates and Montecito, all in Laguna. Also
benefiting from Calax are Avida Land’s low-cost housing projects in the two
provinces.
Silent partners?
Ayala Land is
so far among the most vocal in its interest to construct the Calax. No other
major property companies, except for AboitizLand Inc., have come forward to
purchase bid documents from the Public Works Department. A source, however,
suspects that some of the big property companies like Filinvest Land Inc.,
Megaworld Corp., Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. of former Senator Manuel Villar and Robinsons
Land Corp. might have forged a joint venture agreement with among the 11 groups
that initially expressed interest in the road project.
Eight more
companies, including the Aboitiz Group, Korea Expressway Corp. and AlloyMTD
Philippines Inc. of Malaysia, have expressed interest to bid for the
Cavite-Laguna Expressway project.
The eight new
bidders are Korea Expressway, AlloyMTD, Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings
(Philippines) Pte. Ltd., Megawide Engineering Excellence, Leighton Contractors
(Philippines) Inc., Makati Development Corp., EGIS Projects Developer of
Infrastructure & Service and Aboitizland Inc.
Ayala Land’s
parent Ayala Corp. is bidding through unit AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp.
Another notable bidder is Korea Expressway, a privately-owned business that
operates the toll roads of South Korea, while EGIS is a French engineering
group of companies involved in the areas of infrastructure and transport
systems, planning, water and environment.
Malaysia-based
AlloyMTD, a leading Asian infrastructure conglomerate operating in the global
market, built the 36-kilometer South Luzon Expressway, while AboitizLand is a
member of conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., which has interests in
power generation and distribution, banking, shipping and property.
Public Works,
the implementing agency of the project, has modified the bid documents from a
combination of official development assistance and public-private partnership
to a “pure” private-public partnership.
It modified
the bid documents, after San Miguel made an upfront payment of P11 billion to
the government for the NAIA Expressway project.
The Calax is
the agency’s third infrastructure project under the government’s PPP program.
The first project, the Daang Hari-SLEX, was awarded to the Ayala group, while
the second, the NAIA Expressway, went to Optimal Infrastructure Development of
San Miguel.
E-mail:
rayenano@yahoo.com, business@mst.ph or extrasstory2000@gmail.com
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