Megaworld, BCDA tie-up gives birth to BGC cousin

Property developer Megaworld Corp. and state-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) have teamed up to create and jointly manage a 160-hectare new urban hub called Bonifacio Capital District (BCD) in the southern part of the former Fort Bonifacio military camp.

This partnership consolidates 88 ha of Megaworld’s existing township developments in the area with adjacent parcels of land that remain with the BCDA—which started privatizing Fort Bonifacio during the term of then Pres. Fidel Ramos in the mid-1990s into a new central business district (CBD) rebranded as BCD.

BCD is distinct but envisioned to be on par with the older and larger hub known as Bonifacio Global City (BGC) masterplanned by the Ayala group.

BCDA and Megaworld will create a policy review board which will have the exclusive jurisdiction to set policies and restrictions on the development of BCD and ensure the proper execution of the district’s master development plan and vision. There will be no new property transfer as the partnership covers only mostly branding and estate management.

BCD will encompass Megaworld’s existing township developments: the 54.3-ha McKinley Hill and the 34.5-ha McKinley West. BCDA, for its part, will fold in its 26-ha Philippine Navy Village, a 33.1-ha Bonifacio South Pointe property (under a partnership with the SM Group), the 10.1-ha Consular property beside McKinley West and another one-ha BCDA lot.

“It’s really an integration of all these properties and basically branding this entire district as one,” Kevin Tan, chief executive of Megaworld’s parent conglomerate Alliance Global Group, said in a press briefing on Thursday.

The 160-ha BCD is also envisioned to be the country’s “administrative capital,” as it will also soon house the Senate of the Philippines, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, BCDA chief executive Vince Dizon said.

BCD will have Lawton Avenue as its main road, with direct access points toward BGC via Lawton-Fifth Avenue connection; Makati CBD and Edsa via McKinley Road and Chino Roces Avenue Extension; South Luzon Expressway and NaiA Expressway via southern portion of Lawton Avenue; and C5 Road via Bayani Road and Upper McKinley Road inside McKinley Hill.