Arcenas Group invests P200M for Banawa commercial center

The Arcenas Group of Companies is spending about P200 million more to develop a chic commercial center within the 20-hectare Arcenas Estate in Banawa, southern part of Cebu City.

The Arcenas Group has already established two upscale residential subdivisions within the area, the Paseo San Ramon, and Casa Rosita, which costs the company an initial investment of P1.2 billion.

"It seems that the southern part of Cebu is taken for granted. Today, all developments, for commercial facilities are all going northward," said Arcenas Group president Danny Arcenas in a press conference.

About 30 available spaces for commercial use will be made available in the next few months, while Rustan's Supermarket is set to open on September this year.

The 5,000 square-meter Paseo Center Cebu is the initial phase of the three-hectare commercial development of the Arcenas Estate. It is the first large commercial development to be introduced in the southern part of Cebu City that provides one-stop-shop facilities for dining, entertainment, banking and ATM, health and fitness, beauty and fashion, travel and tours, electronics and communications, hardware and appliances, among others.

The first phase of the commercial development will involve the creation of the neighborhood commercial center, where it will house well-known and branded coffee shops, pastry shops, fast food, pharmacy, bakeshop, among others.

The second phase will already include a development of a mini-mall that will have an anchor department store, RTW shops.

Construction of the Paseo Center Cebu will be completed this coming July. Hopefully by September of this year, tenants will be able to commercially open.

According to Arcenas, the company has entered a 5-year contract deal with Rustan's on September of this year, Rustan's Supermarket will be opened to serve the southern part of Cebu clientele.

Currently, only Rustan's Meat Shop is open at the area, after Rustan's Supermarket-arm closed its Mango Avenue outlet few months back.

The Arcenas Estate has also attracted a call center locator. Convergy's-Cebu, America's one of the largest call center operators is now locating at the Estate.

Arcenas said his company has built the Arcenas Estate I.T. Building, to accommodate the growing number of Convergy's operation. Now, Convergy's has 1,200 employees. It is expected to grow in number in the next few months.

Aside from the retail, food and beverage outlets that are expected to locate at the estate, Arcenas said the company is also currently negotiating with an educational company, PlayHouse, to possibly open a branch at the area.

"We are the first upscale, mixed-used real property development in Cebu City South. We started to redefine 'southern comfort' with our first venture, Paseo San Ramon. Paseo San Ramon's reputation as a premier residential development has been proven time and again. Its reputation is our benchmark," Arcenas said.

The Arcenas Group of Companies is also into banking, furniture exports, Information Technology operations, aside from property development business.