Century City, Mitsubishi break ground for Forbes Media Tower

Century Properties Group Inc. (CPG) subsidiary Century City Development Corp. and Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corp. has already broken ground on the P4.5-billion Forbes Media Tower that will rise in Makati.

The 35-storey office building will be located at Century City, Makati, and is designed to serve world business leaders by "providing an environment with premium spaces to conduct business," CPG said in a filing to the local bourse on Wednesday.

It is the world's first Forbes-branded tower.

The tower will be undertaken by Century City Development II Corp. (CCDCII) where CCDC and Mitsubishi will have a 60-percent and 40-percent holding respectively.

Under the joint venture agreement, the projected $100-million cost will be funded by $51 million sourced from the equity of CCDC and Mitsubishi, and a 10-year $49-million senior loan granted by the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) which was signed in November.

"The Forbes Media Tower aims to become an address of choice for both multinational as well as leading BPO corporations looking to participate in the booming BPO (business process outsourcing) corporations looking to participate in the booming BPO sector, which generated $21 billion and now employs 1.3 million people," Century Properties COO Marco Antonio said.

For his part, Mitsubishi General Manager for Manila Yoshio Amano cited the strong demand for business space in Makati.

"The demand for business space in Makati will always be present and it is an important challenge to create a new town concept in order to accommodate a very crowded old area," Amano said.

"The Philippines, with its rapidly growing market, is the perfect location to launch our first Forbes-branded building," Forbes Media COO Mike Federle said.

Set for completion in 2019, the tower will have a total gross floor area of approximately 95,000 square meters.

Century Properties was tapped by Forbes in 2013 to build the tower, owing to the growing market and the strong relations with the US. —Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/KG, GMA News