CityMall development hits snag

CEBU, Philippines - Stockholders of the dissolved Ludo and LuYm Development Corporation (LudoDev) are appealing to the DoubleDragon Properties Corporation, to review its intention to lease the 1.1 hectare property as the future site of the upcoming CityMall.

Kelly LuYm, whose family owns 33.22 percent of the over P2billion total assets of the Ludo and LuYm families, formerly under the management of LudoDev, claimed that any party cannot enter any business deals, pending court litigation.

Recently, CityMall Commercial Centers Inc., owned by DoubleDragon Properties Corp. and SM Investments Corp., announced that it will build another CityMall in Cebu after bagging a long-term lease to a prime lot along a major national road in the province.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, DoubleDragon said its 66-percent owned subsidiary CityMall Commercial signed a 30-year lease agreement with Dunes and Eagle Land Development Corporation.

Sy-led SM Investments Corp. owns 34 percent of CityMall Commercial.

In a press conference yesterday legal counsel Negley T. Villanueva, who represents Kelly Luym, said that they already sent a letter to the DoubleDragon management, informing them of the adverse claim on the title of the property.

Although,  LudoDev was already dissolved via court order in 2006, property and asset distribution is yet to be determined by the court.

All properties of the LudoDev including Mango Square, and other estates within the Cebu City, Mactan Island, Iligan and Manila had been placed under the custody of the Court of Appeals through a three-member management committee beginning 2011 to wait for the resolution of the case.

Kelly Luym and other stockholders of LudoDev have filed a motion before the Court of Appeals to nullify the transfer of the 1.1hectare property to Dunes and Eagle Land Development Corporation.

The prime property is sandwiched by Elizabeth Mall and the Cebu South Bus Terminal, and a few meters away from the soon-to-rise Cebu City Medical Center Hospital.

DoubleDragon is jointly owned by Jollibee Foods Corp. chairman Tony Tan Caktiong and business partner Edgar "Injap" Sia II. (FREEMAN)