After Abreeza Mall, Floirendos go into international port biz

The Anflocor Group of Companies, which is owned by the Floirendo family, announced it will build an international container terminal in Panabo City in Davao del Norte starting the first quarter of this year.

Alexander Valoria, Anflocor president and chief executive officer, says the company has finalized a deal with Aboitiz Construction last week for the P2.7-billion container terminal project.

The planned container terminal will rise on what used to be the wharf of banana firm Tagum Development Corp., which is also owned by Anflocor.

“We are bullish that this project will catalyze the economic development of the region by enhancing global trade through the construction of the modern container port facility,” Valoria says in a statement e-mailed to Business Monday recently.

He says Anflocor had planned to start operation of the terminal during the first quarter of 2013.

“This project is seen to create faster turnaround time of vessels, orderly ingress and egress resulting to faster turnaround of delivery trucks, reliable plug-in facilities for reefer cargo and the capacity to accommodate larger vessels due to its deep draft,” Valoria says.

On the local economy, he adds Anflocor has projected that the container terminal will generate investments and more job opportunities.

The Floirendos, while more known for their huge banana plantation in Davao, have been diversifying their business.

Last year it opened the P5-billion Abreeza Mall in Davao City.

The mixed-use structure combines shopping, residential and business establishments in one integrated complex.

Mixed-used concept pioneer and one of the country’s leading real estate developers Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), in partnership with Davao-based Anflo Group of Companies (Anflocor), is behind the multibillion-peso project.

Centrally located along J.P. Laurel Street, Abreeza is just the first phase of an ambitious development that will include an office building (with more retail outlets on the ground floor), a 26-story residential condominium and an 11-story businessman’s hotel called Kukun.

ALI’s partnership with Anflocor dates back to the 1980s when the two companies teamed up and built a residential tower in Salcedo Village, Makati. They started talks on Abreeza way back in 2001, and the project was revived and construction began in earnest in 2008.

Anflocor provided the land. Accendo, a new company formed out of this partnership, is directly in charge of Abreeza.