MORE than a year before its mid-2016 completion date, the marketing agency of Panorama Technocenter along Edsa in Quezon City is confident that the 18-story office tower, with gross leasable area of 32,857 square meters, will be taken up quickly.
Just a decade ago, its proximity to Muñoz Market and its transport hubs was considered a serious disadvantage by prospective office lessors. But in the current market environment dominated by business-process outsourcing (BPO), now competing for talent and unmindful of daytime traffic, the building’s accessibility to a convergence center, transport lines and well-populated mid-income neighborhoods has become its key strength.
Sheila Lobien, JLL head of Project Leasing and exclusive marketing and leasing agent for Panorama Technocenter, disclosed that in 2014, new office projects in Quezon City targeting BPOs accounted for 24 percent of office supply take-up and pre-commitments. Quezon City took up a bigger share of the pie compared to the more prominent business districts of Bonifacio Global City (BGC) at 22 percent, and Makati at 18 percent, according to a study by the property services firm JLL. Considered by BPOs as the largest source of talent in Metro Manila, Quezon City, likewise, benefited with four out of the 10 largest BPO transactions in 2014, a distinction shared with BGC.
“The site selection and take-up by BPOs for office space is largely driven by locations that are most accessible to their employees. In recent years, this has really changed the office-leasing landscape,” Lobien noted. “It seems that developers with property in Quezon City cannot build projects fast enough for the market.”
JLL studies show that high demand for offices in Quezon City has driven rental rates up by as much as 30 per cent in 2014, yet still more affordable than BGC and Makati City.
Buildings constructed with the technical requirements of BPOs, as well as large floor plates and which enable the efficient ingress and egress of employees, are the most sought after. Panorama Technocenter, for instance, offers a typical floor plate of over 2,400 sq m and will have 10 high-speed elevators that can ferry hundreds of BPO employees from the ground floor to their offices and from their work area to the main exit in minutes.
Panorama Technocenter is, likewise, considered a green building, featuring double-glazed glass windows, which insulate heat from outside, and LED lighting. Both features contribute to higher energy efficiency and cost savings. These are on top of its superior access to quality talent pools via Light rail Transit line 1 Roosevelt station and a Metro Rail Transit station just 100 meters away.
After consulting with JLL, Panorama Technocenter broke ground on the project in February 2015, targeting a mid-2016 completion date, when few other Quezon City office projects will be coming on-stream. Lobien said BPO demand for office space across the metropolis is projected to remain strong in the midterm. “For a decade now, supply has consistently been taken up by office occupiers, with rents remaining relatively stable overall.”
Lobien’s upbeat outlook for Quezon City office projects is further bolstered by the fact that, in addition to BPOs, many traditional businesses and government offices that have expanded along with the economy are also seeking to upgrade their office spaces. She related that Panorama Technocenter hopes to also attract the manufacturing industry in nearby Novaliches to set up their headquarters in the building.
Demand for efficient office space in strategic Quezon City locations has never reached this level in the last two decades, and it is likely to further strengthen in the midterm, she concluded.