[ bworldonline.com]
By Arra B. Francia, Senior Reporter
ROBINSONS Land Corp. (RLC) will be developing close to 200 hectares
of land in Pampanga into a mixed-use estate, as the property firm rides
on the robust economic growth in the province.
The Gokongwei-led firm said it has acquired one consolidated parcel
of land near the Clark area that will be turned into Mont Clair, an
integrated township with residential, commercial, hotel, and industrial
park components.
“We have acquired significant land bank in the Clark area. We think
that it will be an important integrated township for the company,” RLC
President and Chief Operating Officer Frederick D. Go told reporters
after the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Ortigas late
Wednesday.
Mr. Go said the company has already finished the master plan for the
project, but declined to comment on how much investments they are
pouring into the development.
“We really believe in the future of Clark,” he said.
Businesses have increasingly been expanding their footprint
in Clark, in response to the government’s push to establish it as the
next business district outside Metro Manila. Firms that currently have
projects in Clark include Dennis A. Uy’s Global Gateway Development
Corp. and Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp.
Meanwhile, RLC has scheduled to launch P12 billion worth of
residential projects this year. Three of these are in Pasig City, namely
Sync, Cirrus, and Sapphire Bloc. It will also build the Woodsville
condominium in Parañaque City.
“We are expecting their take-up to be really fast and to do really
well. When that happens, we have more projects that we are lining up
like residential project in Cainta. We are looking at the first
residential building this year in Cainta, in our project which we are
now calling Sierra or Sierra Valley,” Mr. Go said.
The company also has two joint venture projects scheduled for launch
in the second half of the year, which Mr. Go noted are excluded in the
firm’s computation of expected sales in 2019. The first one is called
the Aurelia in partnership with Shang Properties, Inc. located in
Bonifacio Global City. This will consist of about 81,000 square meters
(sq.m.) of net saleable area.
It will also unveil its project with Hong Kong Land Group in
Bridgetown East in Pasig City by the second half of the year. The
P5.6-billion condominium will have 33,000 sq.m. in net saleable area.
The six projects is expected to deliver more than 4,000 residential units for RLC.
RLC earlier said it will spend P27 billion in capital expenditures
this year, the bulk of which will be for investments and project
development. About P4 billion has been allotted for land acquisitions,
in a bid to expand the firm’s current land bank of 762 hectares.
The company grew its net income by 19% to P1.84 billion in the first
quarter of 2019, after revenues also went up seven percent to P6.78
billion.
Shares in RLC fell 1.6% or 40 centavos to close at P24.60 each at the stock exchange on Thursday.
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