Arthaland teams up with CREC, Knusford for Cebu project

Upscale property developer Arthaland Corp. has signed a $166-million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal with a unit of Chinese construction giant China Railway Group Ltd. (CREC) and Malaysian construction and property firm Knusford Berhad for a 38-storey office building project in Cebu.

CREC unit China Railway Dongfang Group and Knusford will form a joint venture company in the Philippines to execute the EPC contract for office property Cebu Exchange, Arthaland disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.

“The collaboration among the three groups brings together strengths in design, building construction, project management and expertise in the Philippine property sector,” the disclosure added.

Arthaland’s Cebu Exchange will rise on an 8,440 square meter property. It is designed to accommodate information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) locators who are expanding their operations in the region. It is expected to be the first and only Grade-A office building in Cebu on target to achieve dual green building certification from the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program as well as from the Philippine Green Building Council’s Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE) program.

CREC is one of the largest construction conglomerates in the world. It was responsible for over 60 percent of the railway construction of China in addition to major projects in the construction of bridges, tunnels, airports, high-rise buildings and municipal facilities. While CREC is present in over 60 countries worldwide, the agreement signed with Arthaland is the first venture for CREC in the Philippines.

Knusford Berhad, on the other hand, is a Malaysian publicly listed construction company involved in major construction works, property development and investments. This group also provides machinery reconditioning, sales and rental of light, medium and heavy machinery and equipment, as well as the trading of building materials.

The agreement signed with Arthaland and CREC is also the first venture for Knusford in the Philippines.