The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Premier property developer Ortigas & Co. is celebrating its 84th anniversary with a renewed commitment to transform Metro Manila’s landscape and build for life.
“Ortigas started its legacy decades ago with several horizontal developments, such as the Greenhills subdivisions, Greenmeadows and Valle Verde. Today, most of our projects have gone vertical in view of changing real-estate preferences,” said Joey Santos, senior vice president and general manager of the real estate division of Ortigas & Co.
“We are introducing fresh retail concepts, new townships and even new office spaces. This is how we have evolved, and on our 84th, we are excited to launch a couple more products for various markets,” he added.
To date, Ortigas & Co. continues to develop four mixed-use properties: Circulo Verde, Capitol Commons, Greenhills Shopping Center and Frontera Verde, each having its own slice of retail.
Building townships
Recently, Ortigas & Co. announced its newest residential tower called Maven, a 62-story structure within its most popular mixed-use development, Capitol Commons.
Maven offers studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units with an area of up to 115 square meters. The structure is poised to be the address of choice of the “It” crowd. Its construction is expected to be finished in 2020.
Maven followed the successful launch of the first two Capitol Commons towers—The Royalton and The Imperium.
Meanwhile in Greenhills, Ortigas & Co. announced the completion of the structural works of Viridian, a 53-story luxury residential tower. This is part of a massive Greenhills redevelopment program that’s now on its second phase. Within the next 12 months, the company will unveil this second residential tower in its bid
to make Metro Manila’s favorite lifestyle complex a complete live-work-play environment.
Circulo Verde, a 10-hectare master-planned community in Quezon City, is continuing the development of the site after launching Avila, the last tower of phase one.
Reinventing retail
Capitol Commons surprised serious shoppers and foodies when the Estancia mall opened its doors in December 2014. With stores like Old Navy, Debenhams, Pottery Barns and West Elm, this so-called urban style sanctuary will soon be filling up all of its three levels with over 70 retailers.
The mall also houses a wide variety of dining options that range from familiar names like Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen, Mann Hann and Florabel, to exciting newcomers such as Buffalo Wild Wings, CoCo Ichibanya, and Spice and Cleaver.
In the second quarter of this year, Circulo Verde opened its two-level, 8,000-sq m indoor-outdoor complex called Industria. It currently houses a patiserrie and bistro, as well as an international preschool. This would soon be followed by a neighborhood grocery, a fitness center, concept restaurants and weekend markets.
Boosting businesses
Besides offering the best of fashion, food and entertainment, Capitol Commons also offers 19,000 sq m of prime office space for business-process outsourcing (BPO) companies, located above the retail stores of Estancia.
Ortigas & Co. has already leased 8,900 sq m to Maersk Global Service Centers (Philippines) at the North Wing. Close to 3000 employees have moved in last December.
“With the BPOs and KPOs rapidly growing, we continue to find avenues to accommodate the growing demand of the industry by creating spaces that could be utilized by companies,” Santos said.