Ortigas group putting up retail center in QC township project

The Ortigas property group has fine-tuned its P15-billion township project “Circulo Verde” in Quezon City to include a retail center, an enhanced open space that will serve as a central park and a new steel bridge that will open a new route to Pasig.

In a briefing on Wednesday, Ortigas general manager for real estate division Joey Santos also said the group’s umbrella unit, Ortigas Holdings, would still pursue its listing by the second half of this year. The group has mandated investment bank CLSA to firm up an initial public offering worth at least $200 million.

Santos declined to comment on shareholders’ discussions with the SM group on its prospective takeover of a controlling stake in the Ortigas property group. Other sources said the structure of SM’s entry was being finalized.

The Ortigas group, a key urban developer, has 50 hectares of land in Quezon City, Pasig and Mandaluyong. Another 40 hectares can be added to its landbank, composed of 10 hectares in Camp Crame and 30 hectares in Camp Aguinaldo, which were donated to the government years ago. It holds the right to buy back these pieces of land if the military would decide to use them for other purposes.

In the briefing, Santos said Circulo Verde was setting an example in “effective urban planning” and offering of residential units at “pricing for value.”

Revisiting the masterplan for the project, Santos said the group would build a stand-alone retail village offering more than 10,000 square meters of retail space that would offer various lifestyle shops and convenience stores for residents. He said the Ortigas group would invest up to P300 million in the retail center.

“It’s a true retail center with a supermarket, cafes and lifestyle stores,” he said.

About 70 percent of the development is still devoted to open space but in the old masterplan, there would have been a road in the middle of the development. Instead, there will be a 1.5-hectare all-green open space in the middle of the project and the buildings will be pulled out farther from the center to give residents a view of the central park. “It’s probably the largest private residential park in any development,” Santos said.

The group is also proposing to build a new suspended steel bridge connecting Circulo Verde to Amang Rodriguez which is linked to Ortigas. This, however, is still subject to the approval of concerned local government units.

“It will only be the second bridge that connects Quezon City to Pasig,” Santos said, adding this 137-meter two-lane bridge would ease traffic flow in the area.

The Ortigas group plans to start construction of the bridge by June and finish in a year, in time for the turnover of the 300 residential units in Circulo Verde’s first two towers. This will also coincide with the opening of the new retail center.

On the holding firm’s proposed stock market debut, Santos said a property firm debuting on the stock market this year must have a “compelling” story. “The investors are all for a mix of revenues and our model is very close to that of some of the bigger players. We have good mix of recurring income and development income like Ayala and SM,” he said.

Ortigas has a cash flow of over P1 billion.