SM Keppel to invest $265 million to expand The Podium

MANILA, Philippines — The Keppel and Banco de Oro Unibank groups are investing $265 million for the redevelopment of The Podium complex in Ortigas, bringing additional retail and office space inventory to the property market in the next two to five years.

SM Keppel Land Inc. (SMKL), a joint venture between SM-led Banco de Oro Unibank and Keppel Philippines Properties Inc., is set to add over 34,000 square meters (sq.m.) of retail space to The Podium, hiking the total leasable space of the five-story retail mall to 50,000 sq.ms. by 2016. This was based on a disclosure by Keppel Philippines to the local stock exchange on Tuesday.

Likewise part of the project is the construction of a new 42-story office building, which will offer a net leasable area of over 89,000 sq.ms. of premium grade office space and will rise above the expanded retail mall by 2019, according to the disclosure.

When The Podium was constructed many years ago, its structural base factored in the eventual construction of a high-rise building above it. The SM-Keppel consortium group was only awaiting a good time to activate this plan, banking on good prospects for the Philippine economy in the years ahead.

Total construction cost for this second phase of the Podium development has been estimated by SMKL at about $265-million, the disclosure added.

Based on an earlier announcement by the BDO, the upcoming office tower top The Podium was uniquely designed to rise from the ground as one continuous, soaring form but it “balances its mass by the transparency of its curtain-wall and the random play of the vertical metal panels in its facade. The building has been designed to international grade A standards. The tower was designed to achieve the Gold LEED rating, from its choice of construction and building systems, to the design of the curtain-wall, to the optimum lease depths for good office day-lighting.”

LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods. The system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The building’s LEED compliant design is seen not only benefiting the environment or reducing the tenants’ operational costs but also creating a better work surrounding for the building users, seen as an important factor in the competitive office market.

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