TYCOON Andrew Tan-led Megaworld Corp. plans to expand its nationwide footprint this year with the launch of five new townships with a total of 400 hectares.
Along with its subsidiaries Suntrust Properties Inc., Empire East Land Holdings Inc. and Global-Estate Resorts Inc., the group plans to unveil two townships in Luzon, two in the Visayas and one in Mindanao. This will bring Megaworld’s total township land area to 3,100 hectares by yearend, the company said in a press statement yesterday.
“With our adequate land bank and landholdings, the Megaworld Group is growing its townships to even more cities all over the Philippines. This means more exciting destinations, more homes to be built, more office buildings to be offered and more jobs for Filipinos. Our vision is to build more world-class townships in every major city in the Philippines year after year,” Megaworld chair and chief executive Andrew Tan said.
These new developments will bring the company’s township portfolio from 15 to 20 by the end of 2015.
“We still have more lands to develop in our portfolio. Our various groups are working hard to come up with unique concepts and ideas on how we will create more sustainable communities across the country,” Tan added.
Last year, the company also introduced five townships in its portfolio covering almost 1,000 hectares of land. These included Woodside City in Pasig City (12.3 hectares); Southwoods City in the boundaries of Cavite and Laguna (561 hectares); Davao Park District in Lanang, Davao City (11 hectares); Alabang West in Las Piñas City (62 hectares) and Suntrust Ecotown in Tanza, Cavite (350 hectares).
Other townships in the group’s portfolio included Eastwood City in Quezon City (18.5 hectares), which holds the distinction of being the country’s first cyberpark; Newport City in Pasay City (25 hectares), the home of Resorts World Manila; McKinley Hill (50 hectares), McKinley West (34.5 hectares), Uptown Bonifacio (15.4 hectares) and Forbes Town Center (5 hectares), all in Fort Bonifacio; The Mactan Newtown in Cebu (28.8 hectares); Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City (72 hectares); Boracay Newcoast on Boracay Island (150 hectares) and Twin Lakes in Tagaytay (1,300 hectares) of Geri, a subsidiary of Megaworld.
The Megaworld group has about 4,000 hectares of land in its portfolio. Around 80 percent have been dedicated for live-work-play townships or mixed-use communities, the concept of property development that Megaworld pioneered in the Philippines way back in the 1990s. The townships combine the residential, office, commercial and retail components to form mixed-use communities.