Gokongwei-led Land Firm Tells Mayor it wants Properties at South Road Properties

Sun.Star
Friday, March 09, 2007


ROBINSON’S Land joined other commercial center developers in showing interest in the South Road Properties (SRP) and has told the mayor it wants to buy lots there.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he is expecting the company’s technical team to visit the SRP anytime to check what development plans they can undertake in the area.

“Mr. John Gokongwei called me last night and said he read in the papers that SM is planning to buy the SRP. Then he said ‘I want to buy it also’,” the mayor told reporters yesterday.



Bigfoot

Since Osmeña is not inclined to sell the entire 295-hectare facility to SM Prime Holdings Inc., its representatives are now studying the possibility of purchasing certain portions only, said Joel Mari Yu, director of the Cebu Investments Promotions Center (CIPC), the marketing arm of the SRP. Yu said they have not closed their doors to SM but they also cannot sell the whole SRP to only one entity, especially since Bigfoot Global Solutions is already leasing a two-hectare lot there.

Bigfoot also wants to buy the 16-hectare Pond F at P12,000 per square meter or a total of P1.94 billion. Yu said Bigfoot is their priority buyer at this time.

“We’re still talking to SM. They know the mayor is not inclined to give them the entire SRP but they’re still interested so we told them to go back to the original proposal where they can buy as much land as they want, but not the whole area,” Yu told Sun.Star Cebu.

He further said that the SRP will be opened to as many investors as possible, and not just to SM and Bigfoot.

Malls

Filinvest also has a standing proposal to develop a portion of the SRP, and Ayala also expressed interest to undertake a development project there.

To make sure that malls and commercial developments will not dominate the SRP, the CIPC have invited private investors to put up two standard factory buildings that can be leased out in the future.

Yu said the setup will be similar to the factories at the Mactan Export Zones.

In his news conference yesterday, Osmeña showed reporters the design of the movie production complex that Bigfoot will construct on the two-hectare lot beside Pond A.

The complex will have four state-of-the-art soundstages, a hotel with boutiques and a building that will serve as assembly point for props.

Apart from being a new industry in Cebu, Osmeña is prioritizing Bigfoot as an investor because of the jobs it will create and the international market it will attract.

Bigfoot also plans to build an international yacht club for mega-yachts at the Pond F, which will bring in foreign tourists, the mayor added. (LCR)