Filinvest Land to expand Cebu office footprint in 2023

Gotianun-led property giant Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) is completing two more office towers in Cebu in 2023 in answer to the strong demand from business process outsourcing (BPO) companies.

In a statement on Monday, Filinvest Land said the towers would add 38,718 square meters of office space and 5,471 square meters of retail space.

The new office leasing assets, in turn, could eventually be injected into FLI’s real estate investment trust arm, Filinvest REIT Corp. (FILRT).

The builder earlier completed Cebu Towers 1 and 2, which are now being leased to a host of global BPO locators. Tower 1 is now fully occupied, while Tower 2 is 73-percent occupied, according to FLI.

“The BPO sector remains to be the top demand driver for office space in the country. Thus, we are aggressively expanding our footprint and will continue to build sustainable, premium BPO-ready developments in Cebu,” FILRT president and CEO Maricel Brion-Lirio said in the statement.

Cebu Tower 1 is now part of FILRT’s portfolio, but the other assets, towers 2, 3 and 4 would also be absorbed in the future, said Brion-Lirio.

Cebu Tower 1 is a 13-story Grade A, Philippine Economic Zone Authority-accredited office building located near Cebu IT Park in Lahug City, Cebu.

“We expect that the easing of restrictions for COVID-19, return to work policies, and the untiring support of the provincial government of Cebu will boost the resurgence of the province’s BPO office industry as we have managed to retain 100-percent occupancy in FILRT-owned Cebu Tower 1 and increased occupancy in FLI’s Cebu Tower 2 while pursuing construction of FLI’s Cebu Tower 3 and 4,” Brion-Lirio said.

BPOs comprise over 90 percent of FILRT’s tenant mix. These companies occupy 240,998 square meters of gross leasable area out of over 300,000 square meters, or a total of 17 Grade-A office buildings in the REIT company’s portfolio.

—Miguel R. Camus INQ