W Group eyes 2 more office buildings in BGC

Low-key but fast-growing property developer W Group Inc., the fourth biggest office landlord in Bonifacio Global City, is expanding its office space portfolio by building two more office buildings that will be ready for occupancy by the first quarter of 2016.

The W Group—which owns the four existing W buildings in BGC—is also the group behind Goldenwill Inc., which won the 1,600-square-meter property on 25th Street corner 6th Avenue in BGC.

For this property, the group agreed to pay P732.8 million or P458,000 per square meter.

This is one of the two recent BGC property deals that exceeded pre-Asian crisis price levels that allowed the Government Service Insurance System to unlock good values for its land holding.

The adjacent 1,600-sq m property, which was also auctioned off by the GSIS, was awarded to another company called Focus Palantir for P800 million or P500,000 per sq m.

In an interview, W Group chair Wee Lee Hiong said his group was originally into the carrageenan business. It ventured into property development eight years ago.

Wee said the group had yet to complete its plan for the recently awarded GSIS property but noted that W had two more buildings rising in BGC that would expand its office portfolio by 120,000 sqm for turnover by the first quarter of 2016.

One of these is the 60,000-sqm Citibank tower which will be fully committed before completion. Wee said W Group and Citi Philippines broke ground on this new office building last September.

Another 60,000-sqm office tower is rising and this will likewise be occupied by financial institutions, Wee said.

The property acquired from the GSIS, he said, would also likely be fully contracted to tenants before its completion in 2017.

With a total gross floor area of about 150,000 in its four existing buildings, W Group is now the fourth biggest office property developer in Fort Bonifacio next to Ayala Land Inc., Megaworld Corp. and the SM group which took over five of the buildings put up by the Net Group.

Asked whether W Group was looking for opportunities outside BGC, Wee said: “We’re looking at Araneta Center (Cubao).” Doris C. Dumlao