Geo Estate takes on upscale Alabang condo project

SONRIA facade

A new era of condominium living is dawning in Alabang, that premium suburban enclave where families tend to stay one generation after another, says real estate veteran Francisco Licuanan III. The southern community has grown but as land is getting scarcer, the natural progression is from having house-and-lot units to townhouses and now to more vertical developments.

Licuanan, who set up a boutique property development firm Geo Estate Development Corp. after retiring as chief executive officer of property giant Ayala Land Inc. several years ago, has thus embarked on a new upscale mid-rise residential development within this community. The new residential project, Sonria, is envisioned to be an “intimate” medium-rise condominium development. It’s where people tend to know each other or where you may know your neighbor maybe even before you move in, rather than a random high-density address, Licuanan says.

“We feel we would like to be part of that community and the people who will eventually live there are already part of the community, maybe the next generation or empty nesters,” Licuanan says in an interview with BusinessMonday, adding that the catch-phrase for Sonria is “new address, same neighbor.”

Sonria is a single-tower, 21-story development along the Madrigal Business Park offering only 88 residential units. There are only five to seven units per floor and the units are larger than the usual cuts seen in high-rise residences these days.

A one-bedroom unit, for instance, will have a footprint of around 56 square meters, the two-bedroom units, 82 to 90 sqms. The three-bedroom units will have roughly 120 sqms. The units are priced at an average of P130,000 per square meter.

To secure this very prime location, Geo Estate entered into a partnership with the lot owner, Ging Montinola, a Madrigal scion.

Geo Estate intends to start construction on Sonria by the end of the first quarter of 2014 and finish within 18 months. Being a niche player, he says his company can be “a little faster” and more “nimble” than its much larger peers. Licuanan, after all, has gone through the phase of working hard for greater market share and profits and while Geo Estate wants to sustain profitability. It’s all about making things different, he says.

Licuanan says Sonria’s amenities would include a fairly nice but not overly large pool, function rooms, children’s playground and a gym. The lobby is designed to be a cozy veranda than a grand lobby. The intention is to create an atmosphere where homeowners would be comfortable receiving their guests or talking to their friends and neighbors. “Don’t make it feel grand; make it feel intimate. Make them feel this is an extension of your home, not an extension of your office,” Licuanan says of the mandate to the interior designer for the lobby.

Being small and intimate, Licuanan  says, it’s the type of community where residents have a better chance of knowing their neighbors.

Finding a niche

EAST facing facade

Sonria is the second project of Geo-Estates, whose very first offering is the three-tower Beacon in Makati. “We’re not trying to create a major company. That’s not our intention. I have gone through that process before. Now the company is trying to do interesting or different things. Obviously, we want to make money, sustain the company, pay salaries but the direction we want to grow is in pace that’s interesting for us,” he says. “Although we want to remain a small company, we find a way to compete with big companies the only way is to find your niche, find your focus.”

Being a small company has its advantages, Licuanan says. Geo Estate can pay more attention to details, to the quality of the product, to creating a “different” product.

His company also has the flexibility to embark on niche projects which bigger developers may think are not worth their while and take advantage of market opportunities faster.

“It’s not easy to find something that’s different. It seems there’s nothing new in this world. We just want to be ahead,” Licuanan says. If his company is right in spotting this trend of high-rise residential development in Alabang, he says all the major developers will be there two to three years down the road.

In the case of Geo Estate’s first project The Beacon in Makati, Licuanan says although this is a relatively vast development, “we were the first to acquire a fairly large lot and put similar amenities to the high-end and spread it.”

The Beacon, located at the corner of Don Chino Roces Avenue (formerly Pasong Tamo) and Arnaiz Avenue (formerly Pasay Road) in the Makati central business district (CBD), has expansive gardens, a large resort-like pool and other comforts and amenities that can  be found only in resorts or country clubs. Each tower has about a thousand residential units.

Geo Estate has now wholly turned over the first tower to homebuyers and is now delivering units in the second tower. The first two towers have been sold out and the company is now halfway through preselling the third tower.

For Licuanan, the environment remains very favorable for property market in the Philippines. He says local real estate is “extremely attractive” compared to 10 to 15 years ago, buoyed by a fast-growing economy, relative stable foreign exchange rate, record-low interest rate and a lot of liquidity in the financial system.

After catering to a broader market with its inaugural offering, Geo Estate is working to grab a piece of the high-end market.