Megaworld investing P65B in Uptown Bonifacio dev’t

Tycoon Andrew Tan-led property developer Megaworld Corp. is investing P65 billion over the next 10 years in a 15-hectare township project, Uptown Bonifacio, which is groomed to be the next central business district in Bonifacio Global City.

The township project in northern BGC will include residential and office towers, an upscale shopping center called Uptown Place Mall and, possibly, some hotel/serviced apartment buildings, Megaworld senior vice president Noli Hernandez said in a briefing on Wednesday.

“Uptown Bonifacio as a township is inspired by the lifestyle of the world’s cosmopolitan cities, including London, Paris, New York, Milan and Tokyo,” Hernandez said.

“We’re positioning it to be the next CBD,” added Harold Geronimo, Megaworld director for strategic marketing and communications.  “The township development is in full swing.”

The masterplan for the township project was still evolving, Hernandez said, but the initial components, including luxury condominiums Uptown Ritz and One Uptown Residence, would be delivered by June 2017 and July 2016, respectively.  These first two residential towers will bring to the local property market about P10 billion worth of inventory, Hernandez said. The third residential tower will be launched within the first semester of the year.

The retail component, Uptown Place Mall, is a five-story building structure that will be opened by 2016.  It will have a total floor area of 47,962 square meters, with leasable area of about 36,689 sqms.

“The mall will have five cinemas, a roof garden, ground floor plaza, water features and roofdeck. We will have retail shops, mostly luxury brands, in this mall,” he said.

In the pipeline for the office component are five buildings that are 15- to 30-story high, one of which will be the Alliance Global tower, the future headquarters of Megaworld’s parent firm Alliance Global Group Inc. and its operating companies such as Emperador Distillers, Empire East Land Holdings Inc. and Suntrust Properties Inc.

For the office towers, at least three would be completed by 2016, Hernandez said.  These will cater not just to business process outsourcing (BPO) companies but to a wider array of office locators.

Asked about a hospitality or serviced apartment component, he said this could be “in the pipeline” in the future.

He added that Megaworld was likewise looking to expand its land inventory in area.

Hernandez noted that Megaworld had one of the biggest land inventory in the former Fort Bonifacio military complex.

Apart from Uptown Bonifacio which is closer to the side of Kalayaan Ave., Megaworld owns a five-hectare prime property called Forbes Town Center, the 50-hectare McKinley Hill project  and the 34.5-hectare McKinley West.