Robinland to open first green building in Cebu

Building developer Robinland Inc. will open the first "green-building" in Cebu early next month to accommodate the growing office demand from the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector.

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) registered eight-story building purposely re-designed its original building plan layout to fit to the unique requirement of BPO companies that include, environmentally-friendly facilities, mid-rise size, among others.

Robinland vice president for operations and business development Wilfredo Sa-a Jr. said that the company has decided to build the first "green building" in Cebu to address the growing demand especially from the multinational companies' for environmentally-friendly-built building.

RobinLand Inc. will establish another landmark at the Mandaue Reclamation called RobinLand Business Center (RBC) that will primarily cater to the needs of IT related investments in Cebu.

Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources such as energy, water, and materials while reducing impacts on human health and the environment.

Located within the 189-hectare North Reclamation Area in Mandaue City, the P300 million project had undergone slight changes from its original engineering, and building plan, to fit with the changing demands of clients, particularly in providing "environmentally-built" structures, with environmentally friendly facilities.

According to Sa-a, the company which is a newly-built real estate development arm of the group of companies own by Edwin Robin, will have to pioneer in the introduction of "green building" technology, to answer the 'demands of times'.

Although, there had been changes in the original building plan of the Robinland Business Center (RBC), he said investment allocation is still kept within the P300 million levels.

RBC, which full construction completion is set early next year, will have over 8,000 square-meter of leasable spaces, with floor area of over 1,000 square meters.

At present, the company, which has commissioned international property management and consultancy firm Colliers International has attracted at least three interested BPO companies that expressed interest to locate the building.

"By November this year, we will be ready to turn-over the leasable spaces to tenants," Sa-a said.

Part of its "green building" layout, the structure is also equipped with its own sewerage treatment plant (STP), to recycle water for sanitation and irrigation use. Airconditioning provision is for the energy efficient variable refrigerant flow (VFR) system. The building façade is also designed to minimize penetration of the sunrays resulting in lower energy requirement for airconditioning.