Grand ‘Canyon Ranch’

That "Dream house" is still a very much-cherished aspiration for most families and individuals. Whether an opulent mansion, or a humble, yet proudly owned, abode – there’s nothing quite like ownership and that sense of having provided for yourself and for the family. With Filipinos, it will always be food on the table, that roof over our heads... and the latest 3G cellphone? But seriously, as we enter this second half of the 21st century’s first decade, it seems that real estate developers are all scrambling to up the ante and provide prospective homeowners with a variety of offers and options.

I had the chance to visit one of the new projects of that "old reliable" developer – Centruies Properties, Inc. The project is Canyon Ranch, a first-class gated residential community that’s perched on the foothills of Carmona, Cavite and is part of the San Lazaro Leisure Park. Yes, the Park is home to the Manila Jockey Club, as it moved away from the densely urban San Lazaro environs, and found a new home in a sprawling Carmona estate. As chairman Joey Antonio remarked, "This is a development that’s close enough to Metro Manila, yet providing three unique and exceptional features; namely, terrain, location and climate. Others may offer you one or two of these features as its selling points, but here at Canyon Ranch, we have all three!"

Departing from the heart of the Makati Business District (the sales office of Century Properties can be found on the 21st floor of the Pacific Star Building) in a fleet of BMW 1 series, it took us no more than 25 minutes to reach this 17-hectare enclave. Passing the new Manila Jockey Club complex, we found ourselves entering the gates of what looked like something straight out of the outskirts of San Francisco. The two-story model houses have a distinctive California ranch-style feel to them, and the moment we left the comfort of our cars, one could sense the drop in temperature. The rolling topography and 10-story above ground elevation enhanced that whole feeling that one was several hours away from the urban concrete jungle that is Manila, and not just a scant half-hour. Wherever one turned, there was some breathtaking vista to complement the Tagaytay-like climate. Laguna de Bay, the hills of Antipolo, Mounts Banahaw and Makiling – they all formed the backdrop to the jewel of a racetrack that glistened at the foot of this residential project.

What the Antonios have put together is quite unique for this level of real estate development. Rather than just sell you the land, they also want to ensure the look of the community, and guarantee a timeline for its growth and realization. Thus, seven custom houses, varying in size, form part of the contract as one buys into Canyon Ranch. Ranging from the 50 square meters Napa to the 280 square meters Atherton, all the homes are individually decorated with view decks. The Napa, a duplex style two-story home that has provisions for three bedrooms with two toilets and baths only costs P1.8 million. As managing director Marco Antonio enthused, "What this means is that for a low down-payment and only P300 a day, one can own a Napa home at Canyon Ranch."

Canyon Ranch is being developed by Century Communities Corp., a joint venture between the Century Properties Group and the Manila Jockey Club. For those not familiar with Joey Antonio and Century, they are best known as the developers of the Essensa East Forbes, West of Ayala, the Oxford Suites, South of Market and Medical Plaza-Makati. Asiaweek once voted the Essensa as the best residential building in the country. So, one can rest assured that when it comes to developing, the Century Group knows their stuff. While Canyon Ranch may be their first horizontal development, the Antonios are more than ready to stake their reputation and track record on the same reliabilty of construction and delivery that characterized their vertically-inspired projects.

While purchasing a home can be a major investment and we are pummeled daily by the rising prices of commodities, Century Communities Corp. has taken on the task of providing a quality house and lot at a budget price. It’s not a mean feat when one takes into consideration the economic situation. Rather, it means full dedication to that mission vision, and extracting ways and means to keep costs reasonable, while doing the utmost not to compromise on quality and specifications.

That ‘Christian’ spirit

It was May 2004, and a gangly young emerging artist was brought to my attention by managers Audie Gemora and Carlo Orosa. Polite to a fault and accompanied by his affable father, this was my first encounter with Christian Bautista. Along with artists like Kitchie Nadal, my involvement with Dish also had me seeking out nascent performers such as Christian and Kitchie before they "broke," and booking them for Dish.

Solo artists such as Christian and Kitchie rise and enter the public’s radar, not only because of their God-given talents to sing. Of that, we Filipinos have in abundance. Whether we like or not, a host of other factors come into play – looks, flair, charisma, that "lucky" break, an influential "connected" manager, creating and sustaining the right "image" and so on. It’s a fact that while talent teems among millions of our aspiring youngsters, only a few have their careers mapped out successfully and break through. For every one success story we can gaze at with envy or admiration, there are tens of thousands of the "forever struggling." On this count, Audie and Carlo have been very definitive and careful with Christian. Great CD sales, strategic TV guestings and endorsements for Bench, Greenwich Pizza, PLDT, etc. all point to the wisdom of how they’ve mapped out his career.

On the heels of his successful first CD, Christian has just released his second album, Completely and there is no sophomore jinx to be found here. Tagged as today’s young balladeer, Warner Music has gone all out to provide Christian with songs and material that will have his faithful swooning, and herald a whole slew of new converts. I like to joke that this CD is a "Christian musical miracle, and it comes straight from the Church of Latter-Day St. Manilow." And yes, from the very first notes of the hot new single Everything You Do, you know this is "Barry, Barry" Manilow-country. Filipinos are such suckers for romantic ballads, and in Christian, we have a potential heir apparent to Martin Nievera. The music video of Everything has beauty queen Precious Lara Quigaman, and for those into trivia, it’s the only remake on the CD. An Andrew Fromm composition, it was originally recorded by Marc Anthony some years back (Yes, that Marc Anthony, of Dayanara and J-Lo).

Andrew’s association with Christian dates back to the first CD; and this is obviously one of the advantages to being signed up with a global label such as Warner. As with Dianne Warren’s collaboration with Nina, Warner has a bank of songwriters from all over the world that Warner Philippines can tap onto for their artists. Andrew composed the I Need You Tonight cut from the Backstreet Boys’ Millenium album and has collaborated with Britney Spears, Montell Jordan, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson. Two cuts on the new CD are credited to Andi Rianto, an Indonesian composer. Recorded in Jakarta, these cuts signify the regional play of Warner, as Christian is very popular in this ASEAN neighbor of ours. Two songs are composed by Christian himself, and the last cut, the only Tagalog song (Nais Ko), is the Greenwich Pizza jingle all spruced up.

There is a "sameness" to the tempo and feel of the songs on this CD (only two cuts aspire to be mid or up-tempo); but in this age of downloads from the Internet and outright piracy, what struck me was the strong consistent quality of the songs on the CD. Whereas quite often, you go through a CD, and find only four to five cuts out of 12 really listenable, Completely does function as a unified concept that one can just leave on and not have the urge to find a new CD to put on. It is mainstream and ballad-infused; but one can easily see (and hear) how this can also serve as its very strength.