ALI offers to buy portion of Makati Sports Club property

Property giant Ayala Land Inc. has offered to buy a big piece of the prime property of leisure estate Makati Sports Club for P4 billion, which will be used to fund the latter’s redevelopment plans.

According to the annual report issued by Makati Sports Club last week, ALI has offered to buy 7,000 square meters of its 1.3-hectare property within the Makati central business district. At P4 billion for the entire parcel, the offer prices the land at P571,428 per square meter.

“This will give us enough funds to build our modern high-rise club with all amenities on the remaining 6,000-square meter lot,” the sports club said in its annual report.

“This, of course, will require the endorsement of our members in a special stockholders’ meeting on a two-thirds vote,” the report added.

To date, plans have been drawn up for the redevelopment of Makati Sports Club, the first proprietary nonstock, nonprofit, sports and social club in the Philippines.

The club seeks to unlock values from its property while channeling proceeds to redevelop its facilities at 46 percent of the original lot size.

Asked by Inquirer what ALI intended to do with the property if and when its offer is accepted by enough shareholders, ALI president Bernard Vincent Dy said in a text message: “At this point, the discussions are vert preliminary and unfortunately, we don’t have any additional information to provide at this time.”

The club was conceived, organized and developed by the Ayala Investment and Development Corp.—the investment house of the Ayala group of companies in the mid-1970s. The sports club was incorporated in 1975. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA