The Ayala group will invest P8 billion to develop a 2.2 hectare project within Cebu IT Park in the next two to five years.
“This is a landmark event in Ayala Land Inc.’s history,” said Bobby Dy, Ayala Land president and CEO during groundbreaking ceremonies yesterday for its latest integrated mixed-use development.
“We envision Central Bloc to be a refreshing hub where business and leisure converge.”
Cebu City was the first area outside Metro Manila where Ayala Land started developming mixed use pojrects.
The Central Block will have a mall, offices and a hotel with a roofdeck pool, all targetting the young and active market segment of the IT park.
The five-level shopping mall will have a total leasable space of 45,000 square meters and 500 stores to offer a complete range of Cebuano, national and foreign brands, a supermarket and cinemas,” said Carol Mills, ALI head of business development leasing operations.
The mall is expected to open in the first quarter of 2018 followed by the two business process outsourcing buildings by the last quarter. The 214-room Seda Hotel will follow by 2019.
The BPO buildings called Central Bloc 1 and Central Bloc 2 will have a total of 70,000 sq.meters and are expected to generate about 14,000 BPO jobs to add to the existing 40,000 employees in different companies in the IT Park.
The 12-story Seda Hotel will feature a roof-deck bar, convention rooms and 58 apartment suites for long-stay guests.
MORE ACCESS
In a press conference, Cebu Holdings Inc. president Aniceto V. Bisnar, Jr. said that to ensure smooth traffic to and from the Cebu IT Park, two more access roads will be opened in the Banilad area which is part of their development agreement with the Cebu provincial government.
He said a resolution is near regarding the dispute over the wall along W. Geonzon Street and a Memorandum of Agreement with the provincial govrnment will soon be signed.
Bisnar said they remain confident about the Cebu market for their second mall.
“Cebu’s economy is really growing,” he said with three million tourists a year and increasing by 20 percent a year.
“We think that with Cebu as the center of investment and tourism in the Visayas, we’ll have a very large consumer market not to mention OFW remittances and the people working at BPO companies,” he said.
Bisnar said Ayala is ready to invest P30 billion in Cebu in the next five years for projects including the Central Bloc, a new estate in Mandaue in partnership with Aboitiz , a Mactan project with the Gaisanos and other project in Cebu Business Park.
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