SM unit readies P100-B ‘future city’ plan

MANILA, Philippines - SM Prime Holdings Inc. the integrated property firm of tycoon Henry Sy, is set to unveil early next year the masterplan for a P100-billion “future city” in the company’s Pasay and Parañaque reclamation projects.

SM Prime president Hans Sy, in an interview late Monday on the sidelines of the PSE Bell Awards, said the masterplan being prepared by a foreign group is expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year.

“We already got the rights. Of course there are still a lot of process approvals needed but at the same time we are already doing the master planning because I want to be able to show everyone that reclamation indeed is the way to go,” Sy said.

“We expect by first quarter of next year, it should be substantially complete,” he added.

SM Prime has tapped New-York listed firm Aecom Technology Corp., one of the world’s largest engineering companies, to conduct the project’s master planning.

The plan would show what can be done in the reclaimed areas and at the same time clear out environmental issues the project may raise.

Reclamation projects have caught the interest of SM Prime due to the increasing population of Metro Manila.

SM Prime said the integrated project is seen as a long-term development given its scale.

Last September, SM Prime announced it plans to integrate the development of two reclamation projects in Pasay and Parañaque with a combined area of 600 hectares.

SM Prime, one of the leading integrated property development companies in Southeast Asia, is behind the 100-hectare Mall of Asia complex in Pasay.

The Sy family’s integrated property firm improved its net income in first three quarters of the year by 12 percent to P13.5 billion while increasing its revenues by nine percent to P47.8 billion.