Ayala Land allots P25 B for Balintawak township

MANILA, Philippines - Property powerhouse Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is investing P25 billion over the next 10 years to transform a decades-long vacant lot in Balintawak to a new economic center in the north.

ALI broke ground yesterday for Cloverleaf, an 11-hectare mixed-use development at Balintawak, Quezon City.

Meean Dy, ALI senior vice president and head of the strategic landbank management group, said the property giant is spending P15 billion in the next five years for the first phase of the Cloverleaf development while P10 billion more would be poured in for the second phase to be undertaken in the next five years.

Dy said the first phase would include construction of eight buildings composed of a mall, flagship Qualimed hospital, and residential Avida and Alveo towers.

The second phase, meanwhile, will include construction of seven additional buildings composed mainly of office and retail developments.

“We wanted to be in this area for a very long time. This area has been a gateway to the north for a long time,” Dy said, citing the area’s prosperous residential community and favorable public transport access as reasons that caught the property giant’s interest.

Dy said ALI acquired the 11-hectare property in 2013 from a company that owned the lot. She said the property has been vacant since the 1980s and was the site of one of the country’s largest textile mills the years prior.

“Our vision is to create a pocket urban development. We always make it a point to locate where our products and services are easily accessible to more people,” she said.

ALI plans to allot 34 percent of the entire property for residential purposes – including an Avida Towers compound with about 2,000 units and Alveo towers having a total of 600 units.

To complement the residential area, the company said it intends to allocate 62 percent of Cloverleaf for retail and business developments, including a 40,000 square meter regional mall.

The township will also feature a Qualimed flagship hospital, a P1.8-billion 250-bed medical facility offering quaternary care services.

Dy said the hospital and the mall would be completed by 2017, while the Avida and Alveo towers are set to be finished by 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Cloverleaf will rise along EDSA and A. Bonifacio Ave., with the community being easily accessible via the LRT-1 that traverses the metro. Adding to the convenience of location is the ongoing construction of the third phase of the Skyway project, which is estimated to be 20 minutes away from it.