Robinsons ramps up office space dev’t

MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC), the property arm of taipan John Gokongwei’s holding firm JG Summit Holdings, remains bullish on the office sector due to the continued strong demand for business process outsourcing (BPO) services and office space.

RLC is now preparing for the construction of its second office building in Bridgetown, a P30-billion business park along C5. The first office tower with a gross leasable area of 35,000 square meters is targeted for completion in the first quarter of 2016.

The Bridgetown project can accommodate 10-14 office buldings.

The company completed last March the construction of Cyberscape Alpha, which is now 51 percent leased out, while Cyberscape Beta is 83 percent leased out.

While the take-up of RLC’s new office buildings seems slow, management said the pace is in line with its own expectations.

These two buildings are  expected to start contributing to  the group’s total revenues in the second quarter of 2015, boosting RLC’s office area 44 percent to 278,000 sqm.

RLC has earmarked P13 billion for capital spending for the current fiscal year, 37 percent  more than what it spent last year. Bulk or 67 percent will go to malls, office buildings and hotels while the remaining 33 percent for residential condominiums and housing units.

The company is opening four new malls this year and expand one shopping center to end the year with 36 with  one million sqm of gross leasable area.