Robinsons Land mulls venture into dorms, shared office spaces

MANILA, Philippines — Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC), the property development arm of the Gokongwei family, is venturing into the dormitory, warehousing and possibly, the shared office space business, its president and COO said.

RLC president Frederick Go said the dormitory business could be a new source of revenue, targeting those who cannot afford a condominium unit.

“Not everybody can afford to buy a condominium unit, a lot can only afford to rent. It’s being consistent with our goals to provide housing for everyone,” Go said in a briefing following the company’s annual stockholders meeting.

 “We have to also accommodate those who cannot buy units but can only afford to rent,” he added.

The company is also looking at the share office space business, which it said is a disruptor in the shared office industry.

 “We are studying and going into that market. There are a lot of shared offices but not from property developers,” he noted.

If the plan pushes through, RLC will run the office and deliver more services to companies.

The company has also ventured into the warehousing business, putting up with its first project in Muntinlupa City with a gross leasable area of 32,000 square meters.

Go said RLC would expand with two more warehouse facilities in Laguna.

 “We can rent it to anybody who needs to take up space. It’s a logistics warehouse so it can be for anything the client wants,” he said.

RLC operates malls, hotels and offices, among others, banking on the country’s steady economic growth both within and outside Metro Manila.

It plans to end the year with at least four new malls– Robinsons Place Ormoc, Robinsons Place Tuguegarao, Robinsons Place Pavia and Robinsons Place Valencia.

The target is to increase its gross leasable area to 1.508 million sqm by the end of the year from 1.389 million last year.

For office space, it also plans to open new office projects this year, the Exxa and Zeta Towers and the Cyberspace Gamma.