Business district to rise in Cavite

Property giant Megaworld Corp. wants to build a Makati City in Cavite, a fast growing province south of Metro Manila.

Megaworld, which is controlled by tycoon Andrew Tan, announced on Monday a plan to build a new business district within the 140-hectare Maple Grove township in General Trias, Cavite.

The area will be called “Maple Grove Commercial District.” It will span 35 hectares of “prime” property for businesses, patterned after the Makati Central Business District, whose financial hub is sometimes dubbed the Wall Street of the Philippines.

The General Trias district will be completed by 2022. Megaworld, which is expecting about P9 billion from the sale of commercial lots, said lot owners were expected to develop their properties within five years from turnover.

“Within the Maple Grove Commercial District, we are creating sub-districts that lead to a 6-lane main avenue. The entire development will be surrounded with green and leisure parks and the streets, composed of secondary and service roads, will be interconnected in a way that everything becomes accessible wherever you come from,” Rachelle Peñaflorida, Megaworld vice president for sales and marketing, said.

Megaworld highlighted how some buildings within the development would feature rooftop gardens, vertical and indoor gardens as well as green porches and lawns.

“Other sustainability and green initiatives that may be integrated by lot owners into their developments will also be welcomed as we strive to make Maple Grove a ‘green city’ in the south,” Peñaflorida said.

The Maple Grove Commercial District will have seven green and open parks across the development, including one dubbed “Central Park.”

Last year, Megaworld announced that it was spending P10 billion for the Maple Grove township over 10 years.

The project is located about 45 minutes away from Makati via the Coastal Road and the Cavite Expressway.