Posted on May 29, 2014 11:31:07 PM [
Businessworld Online ]
DAVAO CITY has turned out to be one of
Metro Manila-based property developers’ prime expansion sites, with two listed
companies -- Megaworld Corp. and Sta. Lucia Land, Inc. -- yesterday baring
their latest ventures there.
Megaworld said in a statement
yesterday that it is spending P1.2 billion to build a 15-storey office tower,
called the Davao Finance Center, in Davao Park District -- the city’s first
master-planned central business district -- as part of the first phase of the
township’s office segment.
Construction will start early next
year and is expected to be completed “by 2016.”
The tower will rise at the corner of
Dakudao Avenue and Megaworld Avenue, which will become the township’s main
artery passing through the commercial, office, and residential areas.
“Davao Finance Center will be the
first to rise in Davao Park District because we envision it to be a landmark
for business, trade and commerce, especially for information technology and business
process outsourcing (IT-BPO) in Mindanao,” the statement quoted Jericho P. Go,
Megaworld’s senior vice-president, as saying.
At least four IT-BPO companies have
already expressed interest to set up operations at the Davao Finance Center,
Megaworld said in its statement, but did not give any detail beyond saying
“[m]ost of these companies are first-time locators in Mindanao.”
“There is an abundance of highly
skilled human resource, and the existence of centers of excellence ensures
there is enough supply for highly skilled human resource to meet demand,” Mr.
Go noted of Davao City.
The company is also putting up a
McDonald’s store in front of the Davao Finance Center next year. The franchise
in the Philippines for McDonald’s fastfood chain is held by Golden Arches
Development Corp. -- an affiliate of tycoon Andrew L. Tan’s conglomerate
Alliance Global Group, Inc., of which Megaworld is a majority-owned subsidiary.
Davao City, which is Mindanao’s center
of trade, commerce, and education, is home to over two million residents and
several topnotch universities including the Ateneo de Davao University,
University of the Philippines-Mindanao Campus, and the University of Mindanao,
among others, Megaworld noted.
Davao Park District is Megaworld’s
first township development in Mindanao. Positioned to be the central business
district of Davao, the township will have office towers, commercial and retail
strips, open parks and lagoon, and themed residential condominiums by Suntrust
Properties, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Megaworld. The company is
pouring P15 billion for the development of the township in the next five to
seven years.
Megaworld townships are clustered
primarily in Metro Manila with a few in the Visayas. In 1999, Megaworld opened
the 18.5-hectare (ha) Eastwood City in Quezon City which now has 21 residential
condominiums, 11 office towers, over 100 companies, and 60,000 office workers.
Other Megaworld townships are 50-ha McKinley Hill, 34.5 ha McKinley West, the
5-ha Forbes Town Center, and the 15.4-ha Uptown Bonifacio all in the Fort
Bonifacio area; the 12.3-ha Woodside City in Pasig City; the 25-ha Newport City
in Pasay City; the 72-ha Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City; and
the 28.8-ha The Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.
The company has also residential and
commercial projects in Chinatown in Manila’s Binondo district and in Makati
City’s central business district.
STA. LUCIA
Sta. Lucia Land, Inc. said in a
separate statement yesterday that it has launched SotoGrande Hotel Suites
condotel in its 60-ha master-planned community Davao Riverfront Corporate City.
The 15-storey SotoGrande Hotel Suites
will have 260 prime residential and commercial units.
Other projects under the Sta. Lucia
group in the Mindanao area include Ranchos Palos Verdes Sports and Country Club
which has a 77-ha, 18-hole, all-weather championship golf course designed by
world-renowned designer Andy Dye.
Other major residential and commercial
projects include Valley Verde, Ponte Verde, South Grove, South Pacific, Altea
Ciudades, Alta Monte Residential Estates, Ciudad Verde, Las Palmas Verdes and
Colinas Verdes.
____________________________________________________________
