Gentrifying urban districts
Gentrification is defined as the process of improving the quality of an existing neighborhood while potentially forcing the relocation of established businesses and residences to lower-cost areas.
German-born British sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term in the 1960s, referring to the middle class invasion of working class quarters within inner London. She observed that “once this process of gentrification starts in a district, it goes on rapidly until all or most of the working class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed.”
Initially it was confined to European cities, but the gentrifying phenomenon has spread globally since then. Evidence of neighborhood alteration and increasing concentration of the middle class could be found today in cities as diverse as Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney.
Here in the Philippines, a study on the process of gentrification by environmental planner Maria Lourdes Alampay illustrates the case of Rockwell Center in Barangay Poblacion, Makati City. The former site of a Meralco-owned 130-megawatt thermal power plant, it was named after James Rockwell, Meralco’s first president and founder of the Manila Yacht Club.
Inaugurated in 1950, the Rockwell power plant was decommissioned in 1994. Rockwell Land Corp. (RLC) was subsequently formed to develop the 15-5-hectare property beside the Pasig River into a mixed-use estate. According to the Makati Land Use Map of 1986, the area was designated as an industrial zone because it also hosted manufacturing plants such as those of ColgatePalmolive, S.C. Johnson, and Royal Oil.
When I was an economic analyst in Meralco during the late 1980s, the electric company’s then president Manolo Lopez convened a long-term planning conference. My group recommended the Rockwell property’s transformation into a commercial and residential development with high-rise condominiums to maximize land values.
True enough, Rockwell Center opened in 2000 with the Power Plant Mall as its retail centerpiece, surrounded by four towers comprising RLC’s superblock development designed by an international architectural firm.
Based on Ms. Alampay’s study, the working class neighborhoods bordering Rockwell started becoming gentrified, triggering the movement of capital back to the city from the suburbs. It has likewise led to the revitalization of previously distressed communities in the neighboring Barangay Guadalupe Viejo.
Manifestations of gentrification in Poblacion Makati include an increase in median income, rent, and home prices; a decline in industrial land use due to the shift to commercial and high-density residential spaces; a reduction in household size as low-income families are replaced by young singles and couples;
the development of “live-work” lofts, luxury housing, and highend retail establishments; as well as a change from manufacturing to service-based industries.
An article by Cheryl Tiu was recently published in the South China Morning Post titled “Where the Hipsters Hang in Manila: a Guide to Poblacion.” It chronicles the evolution of Makati’s oldest barangay from a once-sleepy neighborhood to a red-light entertainment district to its present incarnation as “the happening place in the Philippine capital” with its slightly gritty, hipster backstreets.
“This gentrification, interspersed between residential areas, has birthed original concept bars that offer everything from craft beers to cocktails, bar bites in between — and above all, a sense of community. Industry folk here, whether restaurateurs and chefs, entrepreneurs or artists, know and support each other,” Ms. Tiu said.
2018 PROPERTY AWARDS
Across the Pasig River, another gentrified development is rising known as the Acqua Private Residences in Barangay Hulo, Mandaulyong City. Acqua’s developer is the Century Properties Group, Inc. (CPG) — the same real estate company behind the Century City estate in Poblacion Makati.
At the 2018 Philippines Property Awards, CPG’s Trump Tower at Century City was named the “Best Luxury Condo Development” while The Residences at Commonwealth by Century in Quezon City won the “Best MidEnd Condo Development” award.
Kudos to CPG Managing Director Robbie Antonio for winning the Publisher’s Choice Award as the “Philippines’ Real Estate Personality of the Year.”