The Cebu-based Norkis group of companies is building a five-tower cyberpark worth about P6 billion in Mandaue City, Cebu.
The project is seen generating 38,000 new jobs and becoming a flagship business for the group, which is led by patriarch Norberto Quisumbing Jr.
The business process outsourcing (BPO) hub will be built on a 2.8-hectare lot adjacent to the J Center Mall along A.S. Fortuna St., a former industrial estate which has been with the family for many years.
Norkis—which is also into vehicle manufacturing and distribution, coffee production, horse racetrack operation, and financial and travel services—recently held groundbreaking ceremonies for the first office tower and started working on the first component of development.
The first office tower, Norkis One, is targeted for completion by September this year. It is a six-story structure with a gross floor area of 9,000 square meters. The first phase of development will be complemented by The Arcade, a retail strip featuring food, service and entertainment shops, to be completed also by September.
Upon completion in the next three to five years, the whole Norkis Cyberpark development will have more than 114,000 sq m of office and retail space.
“The Norkis Cyberpark project will help push development in the Mandaue City area as well as increase overall economic activity,” Quisumbing said, noting that job creation was his biggest motivation for embarking on this new venture.
“Together with the Peza’s (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) incentives for locators and a readily available workforce, we foresee a lot of locators, both international and local, making Norkis Cyberpark their new home in the region,” he added.
The group has engaged DEI Properties Inc., a company put up by real estate veteran Danilo Ignacio, to manage the project.
As an introductory offering, Ignacio said office space in the first tower would likely be rented out at P350 to P400 per sq m, slightly lower than the rental rate in other business parks in Cebu.
With a low office vacancy rate of 2 percent and despite the entry of more players in Cebu’s BPO-oriented property segment, Ignacio said demand for office space was expected to remain high.
Beyond the 2.8-hectare development, Ignacio said the Norkis group had the capacity to expand its office property business within the area up to seven hectares.
In diversifying into office property development, the Norkis group is banking on the project’s strategic location, good reputation and credit standing and the bright prospects of the BPO industry.
As the project gains traction, each new building in the complex is targeted to be taller than the last one to accommodate more BPO locators. The second building will have eight stories; the third, 10; the fourth, 12, and the fifth with 20 stories.
“Taking a page from the hard lessons of the recent earthquake and super typhoon, our consultants have designed Norkis Cyberpark and its structures with future calamities in mind. The buildings and the development will be designed to ensure we are ready should something similar happen in the future,” Quisumbing said.
The Norkis group was built by Quisumbing in 1962, starting with motorcycle distribution and manufacturing but has now expanded to industrial and service businesses.