Eton to build more office buildings in Centris project

Tycoon Lucio Tan-led Eton Properties Philippines Inc. plans to scale up its office property portfolio targeting business process outsourcing (BPO) tenants over the next two years, potentially jacking up its stream of recurring earnings.

In a recent briefing, Eton president Danilo Ignacio said plans were underway to increase the company’s gross leasable area for offices by 100,000 square meters from the existing 70,000 by 2013. This will bring to nine its existing BPO office portfolio from five at present.

“We will be more aggressive in BPOs,” Ignacio said, noting that demand for office space was brisk because of this sector.

Eton is also attracted by the upswing in rental prices. In Quezon City, the price of monthly office rental space has gone up to P500-P550 a square meter compared to P250-P300 two to three years ago.

“It’s a reflection of the scarcity of office space,” Ignacio said.

But he said BPOs have yet to fully tap the potentials of the northern part of Metro Manila. He noted that Ayala Land has started to establish such presence in UP Diliman but noted that the premier state university had a few leasable area.

His company’s 12-hectare Eton Centris township project at the corner of EDSA and Quezon Avenue, Ignacio said, was being envisioned to be the gateway to Quezon City’s Triangle Park central business district.

Eton Centris now has office buildings catering to BPOs. The first building, the 13-story One Cyberpod Centris, has been fully leased out to successful BPO tenants such as Wipro Technologies, Genpact Services LLC, Unisys Philippines Ltd., Integrim BPO Solutions and Pascual Laboratories, among others. The entire 18,063-square-meter office space in Two Cyberpod Centris, the second building set for completion by year’s end, has been fully leased to a Fortune 500 company.

Construction plans for the third and fourth office buildings are underway and are slated for turnover by the end of 2012.

Each BPO building in Eton Centris is expected to bring in as much as 19,000 foot traffic into the estate, which is master-planned to be a self-contained, fully integrated community. The development integrates business, residential, retail and recreational components in one setting.

The estate is also connected to the MRT station on Quezon Avenue. Connected to the elevated railway is Centris Station, a two-level transit-oriented commercial center anchored by SM Hypermart.

Through 2012, Ignacio said that there was a window of opportunity for new office buildings because this would be when demand would outstrip supply. He said Eton, for its part, could finish construction of new BPO buildings in 15 months.

Under the original master plan, a total of seven BPO buildings would rise at the Eton Centris, but if the market for office space continued to be strong, Eton planned to build more office property.—Doris C. Dumlao