Foreign firms eye Clark Green City slot

State-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is in talks with some four foreign investors interested to set up shop within the vast Clark Green City.

The agency is also scheduled to publish on Feb. 19 the terms of reference (TOR) covering the auction of the first of three parcels of land at the 9,500-hectare former US military base to be disposed this year, BCDA president and chief executive Arnel Paciano D. Casanova told reporters on Friday.

The initial parcel with an area of 200-300 hectares is near the Capas side of the Clark Special Economic Zone, Casanova disclosed. The BCDA board will meet on Feb. 18 to approve the TOR.

BCDA eyes a joint venture with a local or foreign partner to develop mixed-use space with residential, commercial as well as industrial components in the first lot, which Casanova noted was as big as Bonifacio Global City (BGC).

“It could be a 99-year joint development agreement. We’re comfortable with the BGC model of 55-percent private sector, 45-percent BCDA stake. As a policy, BCDA takes the minority stake to support the private partner,” Casanova said.

The first partner-developer is expected to be determined within the first quarter, after which two more lots of about the same size will be bid out within this year, he said.

Casanova declined to provide an estimated floor price for the property, but he noted that the real estate values of land at Clark and neighboring areas in Central Luzon had been “increasing” due to a location right smack in the middle of road transport infrastructure such as North Luzon Expressway and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

Since Clark is a special economic zone, parallel discussions with other foreign investors that are eyeing to locate in Clark Green City are ongoing, Casanova said. “There are four multinational companies operating in Asia, Middle East and Europe; they are involved in industrial estate and mixed-use development,” he said, without disclosing the firms’ names.

Foreigners can directly rent land within special economic zones without going through a bidding process under the Investors’ Lease Act, Casanova noted.