Renovate or redevelop: Urdaneta Apartments faces Makati subway crossroad
The VIP unit owners of the country’s oldest condominium, Urdaneta Apartments, are facing another threat larger than the ongoing lawsuits filed by fellow homeowner Daniel Vazquez.
The future of the 45-year-old condominium has reached a crossroad amid a confluence of these factors:
1. The Ayala Land plan to retake the Makati Garden Club property across Urdaneta Apartments for an unspecified project. 2. The proposed Makati subway station at the corner of Ayala Avenue and Edsa will most likely eat up the sides of the Makati Garden Club and the Urdaneta Apartments.
3. The costly renovation to make the nearly five-decade condo compliant with the national and Makati City government safety regulations becoming untenable amid the unresolved homeowners’ infighting.
According to the grapevine, retrofitting the 15-story building could easily cost P45 million, not a small sum considering that there are only fewer than 60 unit owners that would share the costs.
With Vazquez continuing to question before the Makati Regional Trial Court the costs of previous and possibly future renovations and paralyzing the homeowners’ board, the specter of Urdaneta Apartments being condemned for fire and safety violations like the Concorde Condominium in Legaspi Village has increasingly become real, according to a resident who asked not to be identified by name.
Like Urdaneta, Concorde condo has been paralyzed by two groups claiming control over the pre-martial law
building and its open-air parking lot, with the building and occupation permits being held hostage by the ongoing litigation. Still, there is a silver lining. The unsolicited proposal by the IRC Properties group to develop an underground rail link connecting Ayala Avenue with JP Rizal Avenue to Comembo has actually increased Urdaneta Apartment’s redevelopment options and its commercial desirability.
Together with the Makati Garden Club, the Urdaneta Apartments block occupies nearly a hectare of land, with an enviable block-long frontage on both EDSA and Ayala sides.
When Ayala Land attempted to retake the Makati Garden Club five years ago, a number of Urdaneta Apartments owners were hoping that the Zobels would offer to re-acquire the condo and relocate the unit owners to bigger condos at the Park Central Towers in exchange. But the offer never came. Fast-forward to the present. With Ayala Land also being blindsided by the Makati City government’s acceptance of the subway proposal from IRC president and Binay ally Antonio Tiu, the Urdaneta Apartments has been thrust into play.
There should be more clarity by late next month, the deadline for other parties to submit a Swiss challenge to the Makati subway proposal.
In the meantime, do not be surprised if Urdaneta Apartments penthouse owner Renato de Guzman one of these days comes out donning his investment banker’s hat. Two Carpios visit The Firm
The two outspoken Carpios in the judiciary, Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and recently retired ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, last week visited The Firm in the Fort, triggering apparently envious quivers from competing law firms.
The two cousins were guests-of-honor of the UP Women Lawyers’ Circle, whose new president, Sylvette Tankiang, happens to be a senior partner of The Firm, formally known as Villaraza and Angangco.
The acting chief justice swore in Tankiang and other new officers of UP Wiloci, before leaving his ex-colleagues in the law firm that he had co-founded for another function with another formidable ladies group, the SC Ladies Circle, who were at the nearby Enderun Colleges. Heard through the grapevine
Coca-Cola FEMSA chief finance officer Hector Gutierrez last month presaged the Mexican franchisee exiting Philippine operations after only six years and selling back the majority ownership to The Coca-Cola Co.
In a talk with financial analysts, the CFO revealed the “double-digit decline” in gross profit and net revenues that beset the Philippine company in the second quarter as the local Coke bottler switched to low-cost fructose to sugarcane as sweetener amid a weaker-peso, higher-tax environment.