ALI, partner to redevelop Fort Bonifacio

By Max V. de Leon
Reporter

 

THE Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. (FBDC) is spending another P8 billion over the next 20 years for the redevelopment of Bonifacio Global City’s (BGC) 36-hectare City Center.

Officials of the Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and Evergreen Holdings Inc., which joined together to gain a 58-percent controlling share in the FBDC, told the media on Monday that the remodeling of the city center would make the area “a fully integrated and truly mixed-use community.”

Joselito N. Luna, assistant vice president of ALI’s technical planning division, said the redevelopment includes the construction of new parks, road systems, utilities and structures.

Luna said the makeover is meant to correct the problems that would arise from the circular form of the original city center masterplan, including traffic choke points, odd-shaped lots, and unevenly distributed access to parks and other amenities.

The new masterplan, he said, will have four critical elements—a road network with a grid layout that would allow more efficient traffic management, dedicated bus lanes for a managed public transport loop, pedestrian walkways that comfortably and conveniently link buildings to parking and transit systems, and well-distributed and broadly accessible park areas to serve as focal points.

Luna said the new plan would reduce the usable space in the city center by about 20 percent to only 53 percent of the 36-hectare area.

Initial part of the remodeling is the construction of four-meter wide “office-retail promenade” threading the middle section of the city center from east to west.

Luna said the FBDC would build two-story buildings on both sides, with the ground floor dedicated for retail shops and the upper level for offices.

FBDC will spend P600 million for the Promenade, expected to be opened to the public this Christmas season.

The FBDC, Luna said, is also opening for sale nine lots at the northwest quadrant of the city center with sizes ranging from 1,500 to 2,100 square meters. The sizes of lots in the center of Fort Bonifacio were reduced, to make them “easily digestible for buyers,” ALI Vince Tan said in a separate interview. “The idea is to come out with a better product by giving more value.”

Of the entire city center, only the southwest quadrant called The Fort is currently developed and fully utilized.

 “We always thought Bonifacio will be a long-term development,” Tan said. “We never thought we’d reach this stage this early. It helps that the real estate market has become more dynamic.”

Joselito Campos Jr., chairman of the Evergreen Holdings, said the city center redevelopment “will transform how we think of city living.”

He said it would be a well-balanced community of home, work and recreation where the people can explore all their passions within it.

ALI seeks to take advantage of the property sector’s recovery, boosted by rising demand for office space from companies providing outsourced services and for homes from the families of Filipinos working abroad.

 “The market is looking good,” ALI chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala said. “The market is more active and far different from where it was when we took over the project four years ago.”

ALI took over Fort Bonifacio’s development in 2002 after the builder and its partner acquired control of the 240-hectare project from Metro Pacific Corp. for $90 million. The property market then was still in a slump triggered by 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

Fort Bonifacio is adjacent to Makati, the country’s main business district and home to the nation’s biggest companies. Makati was developed by ALI and has been a key source of income for the Zobel de Ayalas, the nation’s third-richest family. With Bloomberg

 

Business Mirror
May 16, 2006

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/0516/comp01.php