CPG, Alvarez in realty venture

Century Properties Group Inc. is breaking into Bonifacio Global City’s burgeoning office and hotel property markets in partnership with the Alvarez group’s Asian Carmakers Corp. (ACC).

CPG, led by the Antonio family, expects to invest an initial P1 billion in a two-tower development on a property bounded by 3rd and 4th Avenues and 27th Street in BGC. The 3,286-square meter lot is owned by the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Mutual Benefit Association Inc. and currently leased by ACC.

“ACC will form a new corporation with CPG to construct two towers, one for commercial offices and the other for a hotel, with an expected gross floor area of 30,000 sqm,” CPG chair Jose E.B. Antonio said in a press statement.

CPG chief finance officer Jose Carlo Antonio added that the office and hotel project in BGC would cost at least P1 billion. “This project is part of CPG’s medium-term plan to expand its portfolio to include commercial and tourism developments,” the younger Antonio said.

The move seeks to open a recurring revenue stream for CPG while taking advantage of the buoyant property market in BGC, where land values have risen at a much faster rate than in the Makati and Ortigas central business districts.

Based on a research by property consultants Colliers International Philippines, land values in BGC rose by 28.1 percent last year to an all-time high P237,000 a square meter and were seen to increase to P250,000/sqm by the fourth quarter of 2013. The increase in BGC land values outpaced that in Makati (+5 percent) and Ortigas (+4 percent) last year.