P15B more for SRP project
Filinvest Land Inc. president Lourdes Josephine Gotianun-Yap (6th from left) together with other Filinvest officials show Cebu City officials led by Mayor Michael Rama (5th from left) a scale model of the new master plan of the City di Mare. Those present are former councilor Joey Daluz (from left) Filinvest assistant vice president Francis Gotianun, Filinvest first vice president Tristan Las Marias, SRP manager Robert Varquez, Filinvest senior vice president Joy Polloso and a guest.
(CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
Filinvest Land, Inc. expressed renewed confidence in Cebu with the launching yesterday of a more enhanced master plan of their biggest joint venture project with the Cebu City government called City di Mare.
From an estimated capital expenditure (capex) of only P10 billion two years ago, they have raised the capex of the 50-hectare development at the South Road Properties to about P25 billion to P35 billion, said Lourdes Josephine Gotianun-Yap.
Based on the enhanced master plan, Yap said, the whole development shall reflect a complete “land use” of the entire city, which will feature a less dense development having about 60 percent of open and community activity space that’s updated with the current urban development trend of being “walkable and bikeable.”
When the whole project gets completed, they expect at least 14,000 to 16,000 residential condominium units to be available for Cebu’s market and about 15 percent of the total land area dedicated for office spaces, said Tristan Las Marias, FLI first vice president.
On the retail segment, they will soon have a gross floor area of 55,000 square meters or 36,000 square meters gross leasable area, said Jovita Polloso, FLI senior vice president for commercial center and retail management .
“This covers development in the eight hectare lot which is part of the 10 hectare lot dedicated for commercial and retail developments of City di Mare which is called Il Corso,” said Polloso.
The whole development will have streets where people can walk or ride the bike with their family including a skywalk that will be built across the Il Corso Commecial strip. The skywalk will connect the 40-hectare area to the 10- hectare lot for residential and office developments.
According to Yap, they want to develop a sustainable environment in the communities that they develop just like what they did in their project in Alabang, Muntinlupa.
FLI started developing properties in 1960 and since then they continue to pour in investments in Cebu.
“We now have over 40 buildings, 1,000 homes, 2,700 condominium units and 677 hotel rooms here in Cebu. We’re always open to investing more to Cebu City and the province,” she said.
When asked if they are looking to expand their project specifically in SRP, Yap said that they believe that SRP is one of the prime locations in Cebu. In fact, they were among the first companies to have expressed interest and invested in SRP.
“What I can say is that we always put our money where our mouth is,” said Yap.
INAYAWAN LANDFILL
Mayor Michael Rama, who was present during the launching, also announced that the Inayawan landfill is set to be closed by January 15 next year.
It was said that bad odor from the landfill has affected investment prospects in SRP. That is why Rama said he was pleased to finally have the landfill closed.
BRT
Rama also added that he will be pushing for a BRT or bus rapid transit system to be set up in the SRP.
“We are still addressing the BRT phase 1, and we will be pushing for BRT phase 2 to be here at SRP. Meanwhile a transitionary transportation system has already been set in place while BRT is not yet implemented at SRP,” said Rama.
SRP management chief Roberto “Bo” Varquez said that a developer is already applying for a transitionary franchise to be operational by 2015.
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