DoubleDragon REIT nears 95% office occupancy target

MANILA  -The real estate investment trust (REIT) arm of DoubleDragon Corp. said on Thursday it was closing in on a goal to achieve a 95-percent occupancy rate at its DD Meridian Park by the end of 2023 after sealing new lease contracts.

In a statement on Thursday, DDMP REIT Inc. said it leased out another 1.5 hectares of office space in DoubleDragon Plaza at DD Meridian Park near Manila Bay. The total lease value was worth nearly P800 million.

The project, which is being positioned as a “mini” central business district, hosts two government agency headquarters. These are the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Tourism Infrastructure Economic Zone Authority.

The company “expects to soon welcome an additional third government agency to relocate their headquarters in the complex, in addition to many private corporate head offices in the (project area)’, the statement showed.

Other tenants in the complex were restaurants, supermarket and grocery stores, and banks.

“During an economic crisis, office tenants will have so many choices to choose from a bunch of available office spaces. But when the smoke starts to clear, office tenants, especially corporate offices, will choose efficient and newly built LEED Gold buildings, such as DoubleDragon Plaza at DD Meridian Park in prime locations that will bring better value than alternative CBDs”, DDMP REIT chair Edgar Injap Sia II said in a statement.

The company has also seen business activity steadily recover from the pandemic-induced slump.

“During extraordinarily challenging global economic times, important fundamental advantages of each project or business line here and there would start to become vital, and for this I am personally grateful to the whole DoubleDragon team with the support of all the DoubleDragon Group stakeholders that enabled the planting of the right quality of seeds at the right places over the years, which at this point starts to demonstrate its positive fundamental difference”, Sia added.