Fuente Triangle earmarks P5 billion for "City Loft"

CEBU, Philippines - J. King and Sons Inc. subsidiary Fuente Triangle Realty Development will invest P5 billion for a new dormitory-condo-tel brand in Cebu to be called the "City Loft."

In a briefing held Tuesday, Fuente Triangle vice president for sales and marketing Jose Ma. H. Gianzon, announced that aside from pushing its close to 400 available condominium units offered by Club Ultima Residences, and Crown Regency chain of hotels and condotel units around the country, the company is going to introduce another dimension of investment opportunity through new concept of dormitory-condo-tel brand.

Starting this year, Fuente Triangle will start to build a series of mid-rise buildings, in Mango Avenue, Ranudo and D. Jakosalem streets that will incur about P5 billion investments, this will encourage out-of-town investors to invest in real estate amid the distress economic situation, taking advantage of the strong demand for dormitory, and fast assessment value growth of real estate products here, such as condominiums.

A 17-story dormitory-condo-tel will rise in Mango Ave., and three buildings of mid-rise development will be put in the Ranudo area, while another 17-story building will be built in D. Jakosalem street.

According to Gianzon, the economic depression in the world has brought about strong interest from real estate investors from local and foreign markets, as real estate is considered as of this time, the safest investment channel.

"Inspite of the crisis, there are alternative business opportunities to be found in Cebu. Pricing of real estate even in the hard times, has not gone down, but remains plateau," he said adding that unlike in the United States, that value of real estate products had gone further down to its original value.

The company is one of the most active developers in the country today in terms of building condo-tels, of which two developments are now being built in Boracay Island, to give premium benefits to the Club Ultima members, while condominium unit owners can earn hotel generated revenue from the Crown Regency hotel management.

"One way to confront the economic crisis is to offer good value investments and opportunities to people," Gianzon said.

Those unit owners who may not want to use their unit, may be able to earn from renting their units to tourists, thus return-of-investments (ROI) is easily seen in five to seven years.

Aside from encouraging investors to put their money on tourism-related investments, such as condotel, Gianzon also offers the opportunity for increasing number of displaced workers to "try their hands" in the dynamic real estate sector, to become a broker, or sales agent.

The company is trying to develop a whole range of lifestyle and leisure offering, through the facilities offered by the Crown Regency Hotels and Towers, including the development of world-class medical and health services that will lure more medical tourism market around the world.

Today, the Crown Regency Hotels and Towers had gained attention from the market, both local and foreign, for its partnership with Sky Experience Adventure, in offering the first and only amusement rides and entertainment of its kind in the Philippines that will compare to that of in Nevada, Las Vegas.

Ultima, is a membership club of Crown Regency Hotels and Towers, and affiliate of Interval International with over 2,000 hotels and resorts partners all over the world.

The company has five operation hotels around the country, three in Cebu, one in Davao, and one in Makati, two more hotels will be opened soon in Boracay. — Ehda M. Dagooc