GERI to transform Iloilo estate into P10B township

LEISURE estate developer Global-Estate Resorts Inc. has unveiled plans to transform the 173-hectare Sta. Barbara Heights in Iloilo from a purely residential enclave into a P10-billion integrated urban township.

This makes the Sta. Barbara estate – which is strategically located near the Iloilo International Airport – the 18th of such master-planned mixed-use projects under the Megaworld group led by real estate tycoon Andrew Tan and the fifth township for GERI.

GERI plans to build up its recurring income portfolio to reach an annual contribution of P500 starting 2018 from a very meager level at present, Jericho Go, senior vice president at GERI’s parent firm Megaworld Corp., told a press briefing after the leisure estate firm’s annual stockholders meeting on Thursday.

“This year (2015), we expect the company to grow by another 30-percent in terms of net income. The first order of business for the new management team is to streamline operations and tap opportunities for growth across all business segments,” GERI president Monica Salomon reported during the company’s stockholders meeting.

GERI’s 2014 net profit excluding extraordinary items amounted to P480 million, 41 percent higher than the previous year. Including one-time gains from the sale of a subsidiary during its consolidation into Megaworld, GERI’s net profit last year surged by 151 percent to P857 million.

But the Sta. Barbara project will not contribute yet to the P500-million annual recurring earnings projected by 2018 as the P10-billion development will be spread out over a long-term period, Go said. He said the biggest contributor to recurring earnings by that time would be the Southwoods and Twin Lakes projects, which together would open up 92,000 square meters in gross leasable area.

“We are allocating P10 billion to develop Sta. Barbara Heights for 10 years, part of which has already been spent for land development and construction of the village, which started four years ago. We have seen the potential of Sta. Barbara Heights of becoming a full-blown township because of its strategic location near the Iloilo International Airport. In the next five to 10 years, this masterplanned community will help spur economic activities in this town, and we will be able to provide transient passengers and tourists with facilities that are truly welcoming and world-class,” Salomon said.

Sta. Barbara will have direct access to the road leading to the Iloilo International Airport via the Iloilo International Avenue, a six-lane “spine” highway featuring rows of mixed-use and commercial buildings, retail shops, restaurants, boutique hotels and institutional facilities.

Half of the entire Iloilo development is allocated for the Sta. Barbara Heights Residential Estates, a residential village which features a five-hectare village center with amenities that include a 260-meter swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts, children’s park and picnic ground overlooking a lake beside the Iloilo Golf and Country Club, known to be Asia’s oldest golf course.

This year, Solomon said GERI had earmarked about P5 billion for capital spending. This is much higher than the P1.8 billion actual spending last year.

The target is to generate P14.5 billion in reservation sales for 2015 compared to P13.5 billion last year. “To date, we have achieved 50 percent of the sales target,” Go said.