Goodbye BPI Ayala, hello bigger building
The days of the Bank of the Philippine Islands head office are numbered and headed to meet the wrecker’s ball, if the stars are aligned, as early as next year.
According to the grapevine, the controlling Zobel family has already greenlighted the plan, with BPI now seeking regulatory clearances to replace the 20-story building with a tower as high as the Enterprise Center across the street.
Erected in 1982, the BPI head office was built right on the edge of the perimeter line, with no proper base and setback that befits the country’s oldest bank.
According to the grapevine, the BPI top management and senior officers will be housed at the nearby Makati Stock Exchange building during the construction, with the spillover transferred to the newly refurbished Insular Life building right across BPI.
The rest of the departments will be transferred to nearby BPI-or Ayala-owned buildings, like the Buendia Center, the former and short-lived Far East Bank headquarters, or to even Vertis North and Vertis South, closer to suburban-based, traffic-harassed employees.
Just to give a snapshot of how the BPI Group will need additional room, the total manpower complement by year-end is expected to reach 16,700 from 14,674 only two years ago.
As to the present corporate HQ, the 35-year-old building is already well within the bank’s fully-depreciated timeline, pegged at 25 to 50 years of “useful life.”
BPI had apparently been preparing itself for such a major capital outlay as a new headquarters. Last year, it sold “certain held-to-maturity securities” amounting to P65.4 billion in added firepower.
Incidentally, the year 1982 had been a landmark year for BPI. In addition to the new corporate headquarters, BPI was granted a universal banking license that same year.
And, completing the trifecta, the bank also installed a new president, Xavier Loinaz, who had a most difficult task of navigating BPI through the Ninoy Aquino assassination and two Edsa upheavals, even capping his 22 years of captaincy with mergers and acquisitions of CityTrust, Far East Bank, and the local operations of DBS Bank Singapore.
The current president, Cesar Conzing, had just joined a year earlier, in 1981, as a management trainee still with baby fat in the corporate planning department.
If the planned BPI construction pushes through, the country’s Wall Street would be a busier avenue by next year.
The bank’s parent, Ayala Corp., is also seeking approval from the Department of Transportation to build a dedicated bus-lane in the middle of Ayala Avenue for its planned bus rapid transit service from Edsa to Buendia.
Under the BRT plan, the middle island of Ayala Avenue with its flower pots will be removed to give way to the dedicated bus lane, which will be operated by a new Ayala Corp. subsidiary.
Costing nearly P1 billion, the BRT will use the underground pedestrian crossings as stops, with commuters going through the underpass instead of traversing the street level to get on and off the BRT.
The plan is, once the BRT is operational, other passenger buses and jeepneys will no longer be allowed to pass through Ayala Ave.
And where would the passenger buses and jeepneys be re-routed? That, as they say, is another story.
Legaspi-De la Rosa as one-way loop
And speaking of traffic rerouting, the Legaspi Street section from Greenbelt 1 up to the PLDT-De la Rosa end will be reverted to being a one-way street.
The plan is that starting Sept. 4, the entire stretch of Legaspi Street from the Makati Medical Center side up to the end of Greenbelt will be made one-way towards Greenbelt.
In other words, Legaspi and De la Rosa will be turned into a one-way loop. Legaspi is currently one-way from the Makati Medical Center side up to the Paseo de Roxas intersection by the Corinthian Plaza.
According to the grapevine, the Makati Commercial Estate Association and the Makati Parking Authority have already finished consulting with the different building owners and condominium associations along the Greenbelt stretch, who agreed with the recommendation after seeing the added traffic of P2P bus terminals and increased intersection and U-turn conflicts.
Despite the planned one-way flow, the no-parking rule on both sides of Legaspi along the Greenbelt stretch will remain. Quick loading-and-unloading rules will also remain unchanged.
Heard through the grapevine
Is it because he is from UP and his subordinate from Ateneo, or that their respective law firms had tangled before they got drafted in government?
Whatever it is, it looks like Trade Undersecretary Teodoro Pascua is getting more than the typical Monday morning quarterbacking from Assistant Secretary Ernesto Perez, the new kid on the DTI block, especially on the issue of cement importation.
The question now is, can Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, an amiable chap by all accounts, crack a DU30-like whip to rein in his crew before it turns into another DILG horror show?
E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com