SMDC plans to expand Las Piñas mixed-use project

SM Development Corp. (SMDC) plans to add up to four towers to its mixed-use complex in Las Piñas City in the next few years, following the brisk take-up of its P6billion residential condominium project in the area.

“We’re finalizing ( plans) for phase 2... We have yet to apply for permits, but planning is ongoing. Around three, but it’s not yet final if it’s three, it might be four,” SMDC Assistant Vice-President for Project Development Therese P. Sonsing-Fernando told reporters in a media roundtable in Makati last week.

This follows the company’s announcement that South Residences, which consists of four towers with 15 storeys each, has been 60% sold two years after its launch in 2015. Ms. SonsingFernando said they are looking to sell out the remaining 40% by next year, with 50 units being sold on the average per month.

Once realized, the towers will stand next to South Residences, SM Southwoods mall, and a fourstorey building catering to business process outsourcing firms. SMDC plans to take advantage of the 3,000 to 4,000 employees that the BPO facility, set to be completed by December this year, will attract.

“It’s an added convenience and especially if there’s a BPO because for investors it’s an easier sell… They have an immediate market that they can rent out to,” SMDC Senior Marketing Manager Dorotheo A. Delima.

Ms. Sonsing-Fernando said the company will be leaning toward this type of model in the next few years, with some project launches in the provinces already following this trend.

“We have provincial properties that are already modeled like that, that are beside the BPO, mall, and residential. It’s gonna be an exciting few years for us because it’s really integrated lifestyle communities,” she said.

In an earlier interview, SMDC Executive Vice- President Jose Mari H. Benzon said the company is eyeing project launches consisting of 25,000 to 30,000 units in the provinces, particularly in Bulacan, Cavite, and the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

This is part of the SM group’s efforts to push development into the provinces, with most of the group’s mall openings this year are located outside the metro.

SMDC is the property firm of country’s richest man Henry Sy, Sr., whose other core interests are retail and banking.

The company delivered a 22% jump in reservation sales in the first six months of 2017 to P27.55 billion. This resulted to a 5% increase in revenues to P13.91 billion during the period. —