Filinvest Land beefing up office property portfolio

MANILA, Philippines - Capitalizing on a vibrant economy, the Gotianun-led Filinvest Land Inc. is beefing up its office property portfolio with the construction of new business process outsourcing buildings that will provide an additional 52,000 square meters of gross leasable area by 2012.

On the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders meeting yesterday, FLI president and chief executive officer Joseph Yap said the firm will start construction of a five-story BPO office building within Metro Manila this year.

Yap said the second tower of Vector at 10-hectare Northgate Cyberzone in Filinvest Corporate City in Alabang is expected to be completed in August this year. It is an 11-story building with a GLA of close to 18,000 sqm and three floors for parking.

To meet the expected increase in demand for BPO office space, Cyberzone Properties (the operator of Northgate Cyberzone) will commence construction of another building with a GLA of 16,000 sqm. Located in Alabang-Zapote road, the 10-story building is slated for completion in 2012.

Cyberzone Properties will also start construction of a five-story building with a total GLA of 17,500 sqm along Edsa in Mandaluyong City. This will increase the company’s total office building portfolio by 37 percent to over 206,000 square meters by the end of next year, Yap said.

Yap said FLI is also building up its retail portfolio with the expansion of Festival Supermall in Alabang. An additional 44,000 sqm of GLA will be added to the current 135,000 sqm and construction is targeted to start within the year with the initial phase coming onstream in 2013.

The new wing will include a vast al fresco dining hub and a natural water feature that will be spearheaded by RTKL, a multi-awarded design firm behind architectural masterprices like LA Live in California, 360 Mall in Kuwait, Bahrain City Centre, LaQua Tokyo Dome City and Alexa in Berlin, Germany.

FLI has earmarked P12 billion for its capital expenditures this year, more than double the amount spent in 2010. Bulish on the property sector, the company is is rolling out P13 billion worth of projects, comprising 17 new ones and 24 additional phases of existing projects. This is 25 percent more than the value of projects launched in 2010.

FLI is launching over 14,000 residential units, almost double the close to 7,300 units launched last year.