Gaisano sets up retail presence at Iloilo Business Park

MANILA, Philippines - The Gaisano group will put up a department store and supermarket in Megaworld Corp.’s integrated urban township in Iloilo.

Metro Retail Stores Group Inc., the retail arm of the Gaisanos’ Viscal Group of Companies, has acquired a 9,000 square meter commercial property inside the 72-hectare business park.

Megaworld has allocated nine hectares of the entire township for the commercial district.

MRSGI chairman and CEO Frank Gaisano  said the partnership would be mutually beneficial to both Megaworld and MRSGI.

“As a retail industry leader, Metro’s linkage with property developers is crucial to our success, and this partnership will be mutually beneficial as both Megaworld and Metro move toward aggressive expansion,” Gaisano said.

Gaisano said the company is proud to partner with Megaworld as it looks forward to realizing synergies from this strategic alliance.

Kevin Tan, Megaworld first vice president and head of commercial, welcomed the Gaisano group to the sprawling business park.

“As one of the largest retail chains in the Visayas, they will be able to provide a wide variety of retail offerings to the growing population of the township,” Tan said.

Once completed, the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park is envisioned to be the center of business, tourism and lifestyle in Region 6.

Aside from the Metro retail outlets, the township would also be home to two business hotels (the Richmonde Hotel Iloilo and Courtyard by Marriott), the Iloilo Convention Center which will be the biggest convention facility in the region once completed,  luxury residential condominiums, and  state-of-the-art BPO office towers.

In addition to this, the township would feature a 1.1 kilometer Street of Festive Walk which is envisioned to become the longest commercial and retail strip in VisMin, a nine-hectare commercial and boutique hotel district as well as leisure and recreational parks and amenities.

In the next three years, the township would be home to around 40,000 business process outsourcing (BPO) workers, making it the biggest BPO hub in Western Visayas.

“The businesses that will rise in Iloilo Business Park will certainly benefit from the growing population of the township. With the residential and BPO population alone, a ready market awaits our commercial and retail partners such as the MRSGI and those that will also open in our malls and commercial centers within the township,” Tan said.

A modern financial center will also rise within the Ilolilo Business Park with several banks and companies already set to build regional headquarters in the district.

Megaworld  started selling the lots within the Iloilo township at P47,000 per sqm in 2013. Today, the lots, which range from 611 sqm to 1,735 sqm are now selling at P70,000 or a 49 percent increase from the original price a few years ago.