They made their mark in the field of media. One in television and radio, the other in print. A little more than two years ago, they teamed up to build The Infinity Towers at the heart of Bonifacio Global city. Today, even before the final completion of the project, Infinity Towers is being branded as a huge success in terms of its owners delivering its commitment to its buyers.
The two media personalities are no other than Menardo Jimenez of GMA Network and the Belmonte family of The Philippine Star. Both built their media empires on responsibility and integrity and have likewise put that stamp on their multi-billion peso development project, Infinity at the Fort.
Infinity is a 48-storey skyscraper. It was one of the first mixed-use projects to be launched showcasing residential, commercial and office spaces.
When they launched Infinity, they promised the buyers that no matter what happens to the Philippine economy or the real estate industry, they would make sure the building would go up. And secondly, they promised that the buyers would get a fair return on their investment as property prices were projected to increase. They also priced the units significantly lower than prevailing rates at the Fort to give investors an upside. It was a win-win promise made by these two.
Today, the promise has not only been kept, it has been exceeded. Infinity Tower is eight months ahead in its construction timetable to the delight of many of its buyers and investors. In fact, turnover and acceptance of office units that were scheduled for the end of the year have started as early as May. The value of the units have also shot up for those who believed and invested in the project. From an original selling price of about P80,000 per sqm., Infinity is now at over P115,000 per sqm. The residential wing of Infinity is also rising as scheduled and turnover is set to be started in a few months.
From Infinity at the Fort, they have branched out into NuvoCity in Libis, Quezon City. The goodwill they have shown buyers in Infinity Fort seems to have translated into their new project as both demand and reservations for units in NuvoCity have likewise been stronger than expected. And as the first tower is starting to go up, a second tower is now being launched.
Developing, building, and launching a project of this nature involves not only competence, but more importantly, integrity and credibility of the people behind the project. With the Belmontes and the Jimenezes behind Infinity and NuvoCity, it is no wonder why the two projects are shaping up to be a big success.
Action man, no less
Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Melvin Matibag has been in the news lately, supervising the fixing of a navigational equipment used to land airplanes under poor or no visibility scenarios.
As if his work of accosting human trafficking and smuggling syndicates, and making sure that everything is in order at NAIA, wasn’t enough.
What is remarkable is that he is doing all these even though the broken equipment should be the problem of another agency.
In the four months that he has held the post, he has made himself an object of fear of syndicates and other unscrupulous individuals operating at the airport, and initiated much-needed upgrades at the NAIA complex.
An action man no less, Matibag fixes what needs fixing, no questions asked.
This is also probably the reason why he is doing the media rounds lately – to help create attention to the need to continue the long list of improvements started at the NAIA.
For Matibag, modernization and expansion, on top of stopping all the illegal activities being carried out at the airport, are programs that need to be continued by the Aquino administration.
The 30-year old NAIA, the largest airport in the country, is already not up to par in serving the current volume of passengers. What more in the next five or 10 years?
Despite the emergence of new airports with international flight capabilities in the last two years, the NAIA complex handles about 90 percent of all international traffic in the country. Including domestic passenger movement, NAIA accounts for about 75 percent of total passenger traffic. In 2009, this amounts to a record number of 24 million passengers, five times more than the original volume it used to handle in the 80s.
What the figures will not lie about is the urgent need to address the facility upgrades needed at the airport and to appoint, or re-appoint, the right man to do the job.
For comments, e- mail at philstarhiddenagenda@yahoo.com