Binondo-based property firm investing B in Bay Area

Binondo-based Golden Bay Properties, Inc. is investing R4.5 billion as it branched out into property development in the Bay Area on hopes of inspiring other businesses to follow suit into the more upscale Entertainment City from the overcrowded Binondo area.

Jardin Brian B. Wong, COO of Golden Bay Properties, Inc., told a press conference that the family will be investing R4.5 billion for three projects (corporate office, hotel and residential) on its 9,000 square meter lot along Macapagal Avenue in the Entertainment City.

According to the 27-year-old businessman, its first project Aspire Corporate Plaza will start construction in January next year already.

The high-end corporate office 10-story Aspire has an investment of R2 billion, including R1.3-billion construction cost. It is expected to be completed in two years or by 2020.

The corporate office building units, to be directly sold instead of being leased out, have bigger cuts and are premium units.

The biggest cut would 300 square meters of the total 17,000 square meter gross floor area.

Wong said that they decided to sell their units instead of leasing them because they want to share their project to other investors.

Besides, direct selling means faster revenue generation than leasing.

Already, their clients are a good mix of multinational corporations, shipping agencies, travel operators, foreign credit card company, among others.

Chinese investors, including Filipino-Chinese, now account for 40 percent of total ownership of the units.

“We want them to embrace change,” said Wong, who also noted that the Chinese after doing all the calculation would end up preferring to own office units rather than lease.

Floors 8 and 9 are being designed as garden and events venue.

Some of the buyers are getting an entire floor. At least three floors are seen to be fully sold out already by next year.

Regus, world’s leading office space provider, is also expected to occupy on the third floor.

Development of the next project will start once probably by 2019 or once the first project is almost completely done.

It will largely depend on demand assumption which would come first, the hotel or the residential.

For the hotel, Wong said they are looking at a tie-up with global chain Swiss Hotel.