THE George Ty-led GT Capital Holdings Inc. announced on Monday the partnership of its wholly owned unit Federal Land Inc. (FLI) with two Japan-based companies to build a $400-million, or P20-billion, mixed-use development at Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in the next eight years.
Together with residential-development leader Nomura Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. and Japanese giant retail-service group Isetan Mitsukoshi Holding Ltd., the Philippine real-estate company will finance and build Sunshine Fort—a Japanese-inspired residential and retail complex in the central business district of Taguig.
“It’s a 60:40 partnership, 60 percent with Federal Land and 40 percent split between the two [Japanese] companies. The financing of the project would be internally generated,” FLI Chairman Alfred V. Ty said during the signing ceremony held at the GT International Tower in Makati City. Sunshine Fort will blend aesthetics of both countries in the architecture, and design and sell various Japanese brands and goods for the Philippine market.
The project is part of FLI’s 10-hectare Grand Central Park development in BGC. Commencement of construction will be on the first quarter of 2018 and targets to finish by 2025.
Four residential towers will contain about 1,395 residential units. The towers will have between 41 and 51 floors, with its first tower set to launch in 2022.
Ty added prices for units are yet to be set, with different factors and Japanese condominium-building features to consider.
“Maybe it’s too early to talk about pricing now, but we are engaging the market situation. Of course, there are a lot of extra factors we are putting in this project ahead of market competition, and these are features you normally see in Japanese condominium buildings, so all of that will be integrated into the cost when we announce the launch by the first quarter of 2018,” he said.
The chairman also added the company welcomes future opportunities along with the partnership, but their focus is currently with the Sunshine Fort project.
“The joint-venture company, for now, is looking at the Fort as its main focus because of the magnitude. We’d like to give all our efforts into making this a success. In the future, we hope business will allow for it to multiply and to look at other areas but, for now, the focus is the Fort Bonifacio Project,” he said.
Nomura Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. Executive Officer Atsushi Ogata cited the country’s improving economy as the main factor for the company’s decision to invest in this joint-venture project.
“The increase in rapid growth in the Philippines is a major consideration. We would also like to point out that the growth and development of the charm BGC is bringing to our project is also one of the factors we are looking at. The partnership among Nomura and Fedland and Mitsukoshi is definitely something we would like to be looking forward to,” Ogata said in Japanese.
FLI is a component company of publicly listed conglomerate GT Capital Holdings Inc., with interests in banking, property development, infrastructure and utilities, automotive assembly, importation, dealership, financing and life and nonlife insurance.
From January to March 2017, the latter’s consolidated revenues grew by 32 percent to P48.8 billion, from P36.8 billion in the same period last year. Combined net income of all its subsidiaries reached P3.1 billion, or 5 percent higher than P2.9 billion recorded in 2016.
For the first quarter of this year, its property arms FLI and Property Company of Friends Inc. (Pro-Friends) reported a combined P3.5 billion in consolidated revenues, as net income amounted to P590.5 million.
GT Capital alloted P47 billion in capital expenditures for this year, of which P3 billion is appropriated for FLI and P8 billion for Pro-Friends.
Image credits: Alysa Salen