Certified green builder Italpinas Development Corp. (IDC) will shortly launch a new condominium development, where buyers will not only own a topnotch home, but also enjoy the benefits of an innovative solar-power system.
IDC’s Primavera City in Cagayan de Oro City is designed with an onsite solar-power plant component that should produce around 1.4 megawatts of power.
IDC President Jose D. Leviste III said that by investing in an economically sized solar-power system, the residents of Primavera City will enjoy a lowered cost of living, as the system contributes solar power to the building’s various functions.
The building’s lessened dependence on expensive power from the grid makes it an innovation not just in aesthetics and design, but also in the economics of condominium living, he noted.
IDC Chairman and COO Romolo Valentino Nati, an Italian architect, said Primavera City’s solar plant component is consistent with the company’s thrust of building only sustainable and ecologically sound condominium buildings.
“The company’s unique marketing proposition is to offer distinctive energy-efficient, passive and active eco-friendly green-building concept with beautiful contemporary Italian-Filipino design, while continuously improving the quality and accessibility of its residential and commercial properties to satisfy the housing and business needs of the expanding Philippine population, and the desire of overseas Filipino workers, balikbayan and expats to secure properties in new emerging cities in the country, as well as the increasing sophistication of the market and its demand for style and comfort,” Nati emphasized.
Primavera City’s value proposition, he added, revolves around the unique integration of renewable energy with real-estate development. “Once the capacity to implement the solar PV system for condominiums is refined, the power generated from solar energy may spin off to another business ventures, which target other residential, office and commercial buildings.”
The publicly listed IDC made its mark in the real-estate industry as the first Philippine company certified by the International Finance Corp. (IFC)-World Bank Group’s “Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies” (EDGE) program for its flagship project also in Cagayan de Oro City, the Primavera Residences.
It recently announced that the launch of Phase 1 of Primavera City has been set in the second quarter of the year. It involves the construction of two towers of integrated multifunctional buildings (commercial, office and residential) project with 11 floors each. Located at the Pueblo de Oro Business Park, Upper Carmen, Cagayan de Oro (near SM City Cagayan de Oro), Phase 1 of the project entails an investment of about P653 million for two towers. When fully complete, Primavera City is planned to consist of seven green buildings, including a high-rise tower.
The two towers of Primavera City Phase 1 are designed to have 337 units, 57 of them commercial units; 231 are studio type; 22 are one-bedroom units; and 27 are two-bedroom units; and around 100 parking slots. Their average sizes are 50 to 60 square meters for commercial units, 28 sq m for studio-type units, 47 sq m for the single-bedroom units and 70 sq m for the two-bedroom units.
IFC Global Green Building Specialist Prashant Kapoor, IFC World Bank Legal Advisor and IFC Philippines head of Green Building Program Tess Lacerna and IFC Country Manager Jane Xu awarded the certificates to Primavera Residences Tower A & B as the “First Completed Condominium Project in East Asia Certified by EDGE.”
EDGE is an accreditation body of the IFC-World Bank Group. It helps property developers build and meaningfully brand their properties as “green.” It is the highest and most desirable program in the international real-estate industry. EDGE is supported by a software that encourages solutions to reduce energy, water and energy consumption by at least 20 percent, which is the standard for EDGE certification.
