Aseana Holdings earmarks up to P3B for Parañaque City business district

By DANESSA O. RIVERA, GMA News

November 12, 2014 3:30pm

Aseana Holdings Inc. is pouring P2 billion to P3 billion in the next three years to turn Aseana City into the central business district of Parañaque City, a move which is expected to benefit from adjacent retail and casino developments.The surrounding major infrastructure developments were also taken into consideration, Aseana managing director Delfin Angelo Wenceslao told reporters in a briefing in Parañaque City on Wednesday.

The 204-hectare Aseana City is 50 percent supervised by the government while Aseana Holdings has jurisdiction over the other half.

“We’re going to spend P2-3 billion within the next two to three years, and part of this will be spent on infrastructure projects… while a big portion of this will go to our private developments,” Wenceslao said.

The private developments include a third office building called ASEANA 3, a first residential project called Pixel Residences, and retail developments called Camp Aseana and Aseana Square.

Wenceslao noted Aseana City is surrounded by PAGCOR’s Entertainment City and SM Group’s Mall of Asia Complex.

“Since we’re strategically located, we’re building everything to complement those two sides, the retail-focused MOA and tourism-driven Entertainment City,” he said.

With the NAIA Expressway expected to be completed in 2017 and the LRT Line 1 project in 2019, Wenceslao noted accessibility will definitely improve for Aseana City.

NAIA Expressway will link South Luzon Expressway and the three airport terminals via an access ramp, while the LRT project will extend Line 1 to Bacoor, Cavite.Capex funding

To attract locators, Aseana Holdings is putting up a public transport hub and safety and security service as part of the capital expenditure, Wenceslao said.

“We were able to get a public transport franchise and find a provider of sustainable jeeps that will run on LPG,” he said.

“We also partnered with a Korean company called Centios to construct an information and communication technology (ICT) backbone to offer technology-enhanced services to locators,” he said.

The first phase of the project consists of electronic surveillance machines that will converge into an integrated operations center.

Apart from its own developments, Aseana Holdings is also selling or leasing part of the remaining 40 to 50 hectares in Aseana City to other property developers to fund the capex, Wenceslao said.

“We still have a sizable landbank. As we’re developing our own, we also encourage other developers… via sale, lease or joint venture,” he said.

“Every year, in as much as we get many offers to sell our land, we usually just sell a hectare each year to support capex requirements,” he added. – VS, GMA News