By Lovely A. Carillo
DAVAO CITY, Feb. 12 (PNA) — Suntrust Properties, Inc., a 100-percent-owned subsidiary of Megaworld, is eyeing at least P2 billion in the sales of its residential condominium One Lakeshore Drive this 2015.
The four-tower condominium cluster, which will be built at the center of the 11.2-hectare Davao Park District, was given the license to sell only in October last year and was programmed to sell for six to eight months. Davao Park District is Megaworld’s first township development in Mindanao. Located in an 11.2-hectare property along the S.P. Dakudao Loop in Lanang, which used to be the Lanang Golf and Country Club, Davao Park District is envisioned to be Davao City’s central business district (CBD) and a major center for information technology and business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) in Mindanao.
“But in less than two months after it started selling, the first tower of One Lakeshore Drive is now almost sold out,” said Harrison Paltongan, president of Suntrust Properties, Inc. This has prompted the company to launch the second tower last week, way ahead of schedule. Expected delivery of the four towers is in 2019.
Paltongan said those who previously invested in the condominium units at P80,000 per square meter would be happy to know that the price has increased to P84,000 per square meter. This could prompt investors to sell their investments or maybe invest some more, he added.
“We were venturing on the reasons why it is so sellable,” he said. For one, he said, One Lakeshore Drive is a residential center beside a man-made one-hectare lake within a township making it very attractive. More importantly, it is surrounded by greeneries and provides residents with views of Samal Island, Mt. Apo and the Davao Gulf.
Each of the four condominium towers will be 21 storeys high with 16 to 20 units per floor with the following unit sizes: studio-up to 27 square meters (sqm); executive studio- up to 40 sqm; one bedroom-up to 50 sqm and two bedrooms- up to 76 sqm.
“This will be a low density residential development with only 35% of the total land area occupied by the condominium towers,” Paltongan said. The other 65% will comprise of the Lake, big roads including main roads measuring 29- meter wide, amenities, landscapes and parks. In contrast, the Diversion Road, which is one of the city’s main highways, measures 30-meter wide.
One Lakeshore Drive will have an exclusive third-level amenity deck that features a 20-meter infinity pool overlooking the lake, wood deck pool area, wet lounge, kiddie pool, outdoor fitness station, gazebo, children’s playground and pocket gardens. Other amenities such as the business center, day care center, function rooms, indoor fitness gym will be at the ground level. The ground floor will also have its own commercial area.
Suntrust also partnered with PLDT HOME, a leading multimedia solutions provider, to provide every resident with connectivity through Viber, Telpad, and DSL services.
“Our partnership with PLDT HOME makes One Lakeshore Drive a modern, high-tech and future-ready residential property. Fiber-optic cables will be installed in each tower, bringing a new level of township lifestyle to our future residents. With this, installing home facilities for internet, cable TV, and CCTV cameras will be convenient and hassle-free,” Paltongan added. Homeowners can a buy a gadget to be able to control their television sets, air conditioners and almost everything inside their homes using their mobile phones, he added.
Jericho P. Go, senior vice president of Megaworld, said The company is allocating P15-billion in the next five to seven years to build and develop Davao Park District. Go said the P1.2-billion Davao Finance Center, a 16-storey business tower that will serve as the location of major Business Process Outsourcing companies, will start development this year.
“The Finance Center is expected to provide employment to 8,000 Workers in the BPO information technology and related industries,” Go said. He said they still have more or less two years to come up with locators for the Center but are confident since they have a good headstart “with up to 150 companies already our portfolio for the various townships includes Accenture and other big locators.”
Given a multiplier of five for the expected employment generated by the Center, this will further result to close to 50,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities for the city considering that these workers will require transportation, food and other products and services, he added.
“There is a huge manpower pool in the city with highly technical skills and highly trainable plus the very competitive cost of labor here,” he said.
Go said the Davao township will be a green development as it will ensure lesser carbon footprint in its development. “The environment will always be a key consideration,” he said. It will have all the components of Eastwood, he added, but not as dense since the latter can have as many as 100,000 people at one time with 60,000 BPO workers and up to 30,000 residents.
Megaworld has 15 townships in the Philippines including the Davao township which is its first in Mindanao. Almost a third of Megaworld’s projects are located outside Metro Manila and these are the Davao Park Districts, the P28.8-hectare The Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu worth P20B and the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City worth P35B.
Meagworld introduced its first township in 1999 starting with the 18.5-hectare Eastwood City in Libis, Quezon City, which is known to be the country’s first cyberpark that saw the birth of the BPO industry in the Philippines. Other successful townships developed by Megaworld include the 50-hectare McKinley Hill, the five-hectare Forbes Town Center, the 34.5-hectare McKinley West, and the 15.4-hectare Uptown Bonifacio, all in Fort Bonifacio; the 25-hectare Newport City in Pasay City which is home to the famous Resorts World Manila; the 12.3-hectare Woodside City along C-5, Pasig City; the 350-hectare Suntrust Ecotown in Cavite and Global-Estate Resorts, Inc.’s 561-hectare Southwoods City in the boundaries of Cavite and Laguna; 150-hectare Boracay Newcoast in Boracay Island; the 1,300-hectare Twin Lakes in Tagaytay, and the 62-hectare Alabang West in Alabang. (PNA)