Property Management

NEW CENTRAL business districts in Metro Manila are expected to sustain growth in the next three years on the back of a growing outsourcing and call center industry, a property consultancy recently said. “Many top BPO (business process outsourcing) corporations have expanded beyond Metro Manila to cities like Baguio, Sta. Rosa in Laguna, Lipa in Batangas, Iloilo, Dumaguete and Davao, seeking to tap the services of fresh labor pools. As far as we can see, the industry will continue to provide impetus to the office sector and other related sectors up to 2015,” said Phillip G. Añonuevo, associate director of real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Leechiu (JLLL) in a press statement released over the weekend.

From two dominant business districts of Ortigas Center and Makati City in 2000, there are now at least 10 in Metro Manila and 10 more in key Philippine cities, fueled mostly by the BPO industry that was previously valued at $9 billion in 2010, Mr. Añonuevo said.

More than half of all local office space leased since 2006 have been taken up by major BPO players, which generate an average demand of as much as 360,000 square meters of space annually, he added.

At present, the country’s fastest-growing business district is Bonifacio Global City, coupled with developments from the nearby McKinley Hill area developed by Megaworld Corp.

Big-ticket projects such as NAC Building, Ecotower, W Fifth Avenue, and W Global Center are expected to be built this year while the RSB Corporate Center is slated for completion in the second quarter of 2013.

According to Mr. Añonuevo, the rapid growth of Bonifacio Global City has been fueled by its proximity to Makati City and to the access it has to the labor pools of Metro Manila.

Meanwhile, Makati City, the country’s largest business district, is expected to see the rise of at least two new office buildings in the second semester as take-up for newly opened Ecoplaza and Southgate Tower remains robust, JLLL noted.

In the southern part of Metro Manila, the Bay City area, anchored by the Sy-developed SM Mall of Asia, has likewise emerged as a growing business district in the last few years.

“Bay City has become accessible to public transportation and call centers, and other firms located there easily attract employees from Parañaque and Las Piñas [cities] and even parts of Cavite,” Mr. Añonuevo said.

Smaller business districts expected to grow further include parts of Quezon City, namely the Ayala-developed UP-Ayala Technohub, Eton-owned Centris mixed-use development, and The Gateway Tower in Cubao. The Madrigal Business Park in Alabang, Muntinlupa City may experience a boost upon the completion of the Kingston Tower, JLLL said.