Ayala Land to position Laguna as regional center

REPORT FROM BUSINESSWORLD The country’s largest property developer, Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI), is positioning Canlubang, Laguna as a regional center after it has completed its master plan, Chief Finance Officer Jaime E. Ysmael told BusinessWorld. In an interview, Mr. Ysmael said the company, together with Ayala-owned Avida Land, Inc. and Community Innovations, Inc., will enter into a joint development agreement with CECI Realty, Inc., Aurora Properties, Inc. and Vesta Properties Holdings, Inc. after Canlubang Properties underwent a master-planning review process aimed at developing the area into a complete and intergrated township. "We are now going into the detailed implementation plan. We will enter into joint development agreement with the Canlubang companies to develop their specific parcels of land. It will be a new regional center not intended to replace Makati [City central business district]. That area that sits at the heart of Calabarzon [Calamba, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon] area has a large industrial base and the beginnings of a university compound complex," he added. The Canlubang development follows the P6-billion investment of Ayala over the next five to 10 years for the 38-hectare property of the University of the Philippines (UP) into a fully integrated information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services community. Last October, ALI entered a 25-year contract of lease with the state university to develop the lot named the UP North Science and Technology Park. Development work will start within the first half of 2007. For Canlubang, ALI plans to develop another business process outsourcing (BPO) campus by the second semester of 2007. Mr. Ysmael said the Canlubang property calls for a BPO component and residential elements addressing the high-end, middle-income and affordable segment aside from the retail complex which will effectively service the requirements of the BPO campus and adjoining residential communities. "A lot of the big universities in Manila have positioned in that area. La Salle Canlubang is up; Don Bosco and St. Scholastica’s College are there. UST has broken ground; even Ateneo, University of Asia & the Pacific and Xavier School have parcels of land there. Eventually, it will be a regional hub," he added. As the Arroyo administration is positioning the Philippines as a Southeast Asian "retirement haven," the Canlubang development plan will also have a retirement village. "We are still trying to develop specific products that will cater to that market. But the sheer size of Canlubang and characteristics of the terrain lends itself for that kind of development," he said. ALI is still finalizing its budget for next year but, Mr. Ysmael said this will not be too far from what the company intended to spend in 2006. This year, the company’s consolidated project and capital expenditures budget is set at P16.1 billion, up from the P13.6 billion earmarked for 2005. In 2007, ALI will launch its foray in the Visayas and Mindanao markets as it introduces residential projects in Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro. It will start construction of its first mall outside Metro Manila. With a leasable space of 70,000 square meters, the mall in Angeles, Pampanga is positioned to be a regional mall. It will add 226,250 square meters in gross leasable retail area to its portfolio of shopping centers as it opens the 195,000-square-meter Triangle North of Manila (Tri Noma) and 31,250-square-meter Greenbelt 5 next year. Opening in May, Tri Noma is expected to compete head on with SM City North EDSA which was recently expanded by the Sys. — Ruby Anne M. Rubio/BusinessWorld