Old Davao golf course to be transformed into a business district

A unit of property developer Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI) has earmarked P33 billion to redevelop a former golf course in Davao City into a 22-hectare business district.

Davao Global Township (DGT), CLI’s first township project, is being undertaken by YHEST Realty and Development Corp., a joint venture between CLI and the landed Villa-Abrille clan.

“The size of the (DGT) property, our first township development, will allow us to have a diversity of uses to make a complete and truly sustainable community. We envision DGT to be the central business district with a dynamic lifestyle that will provide economic and social value to Davao, one of the fastest growing economic regions in the country,” CLI chair and chief executive and YHEST chair Jose Soberano said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.

YHEST has started groundworks for phase 1 of the estate, which is located at the Matina district of Davao City, one of the densest residential areas of the city.

Phase 1 is estimated to cost P10 billion and open up 93,000 square meters of gross floor area as envisioned by YHEST with masterplanner RTKL, a global planning and design firm responsible for the revival of some downtown centers in the world. The first phase is set for completion in 2022.

“These are exciting times for Davao and the Philippines as this tie-up ushers a new generation of local homegrown developers ready to be on a par with the best of the world,” said YHEST president Fred Yuson, a fifth-generation descendant of businessman Francisco Villa-Abrille, one of Davao’s forefathers.

One of the oldest clans in Davao, the Villa-Abrille group is into leasing of commercial offices and buildings such as Matina IT Park and Sutherland Global Services. The clan launched Davao’s first residential subdivision in 1952 and put up the Davao City Golf Club, the first and oldest golf course in the city until it was closed in 2018 to make way for DGT.

“As the descendants of Juna Villa-Abrille, we commit ourselves to his legacy of hard work, humility and generosity. We are happy that in our generation, we are able to kick-start all these simultaneous developments and there’s no better way but to partner with (Visayas-Mindanao) Vis-Min’s leading developer Cebu Landmasters,” Yuson said.

DGT is the clan’s third and biggest project with CLI.