PROPERTY developer Megaworld Corp. and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) have teamed up to rebrand their respective properties located within the southern part of the former Fort Bonifacio military camp in Taguig, creating what it called a new district.
The companies will call the development the Bonifacio Capital District (BCD), a combined 160 hectares of land of Megaworld and BCDA.
Megaworld currently owns 88.8 hectares of the property consisting of the 54.3-hectare McKinley Hill and the 34.5-hectare McKinley West.
BCDA, meanwhile, owns the rest consisting of the the 26-hectare Philippine Navy Village; the 33.1-hectare Bonifacio South Pointe property in partnership with the SM Group; the 10.1-hectare Consular property beside McKinley West; and a remaining 1-hectare BCDA lot, one of the expensive areas in Fort Bonifacio as it sits closest to Forbes Park.
Both will pursue developments in their respective areas, but Megaworld will manage the new district. It will create the Policy Review Board that will have the exclusive jurisdiction to set policies and restrictions on the development of the BCD, and to ensure the proper execution of the district’s master development plan and vision.
“As a key locator in Fort Bonifacio, Megaworld has made positive impact in the lives of many Filipinos through its ‘live-work-play’ concept. The district will soon house the country’s major institutions such as the Senate of the Philippines, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. These government institutions will be complemented with more office spaces, residential units, parks and commercial establishments—which are all essential to our vision to create vibrant and livable communities for the people,” said Vivencio B. Dizon, president and CEO of BCDA.
Based on the district’s original masterplan by Parsons Brinckerhoff, at least 15 percent of the entire area will be dedicated to recreation, green and open spaces, on top of the mandatory open space easement required to each locator.
“In the next five years, after completing the road developments, utilities network, and the subway project, we will be focused on traffic management, which includes development of bike lanes and pedestrian networks, as well as deployment of traffic marshals. We will also improve landscaping along the district’s major roads and designing the entire district with urban art installations,” said Kevin Andrew L. Tan, Megaworld’s senior vice president.
Tan is also CEO of Alliance Global Group Inc., the mother company of Megaworld.
“On security management, we will also expand the CCTV monitoring to cover all areas of the district, which will then be incorporated into our central command center inside McKinley Hill,” he said.
Currently, development-based gross floor area of existing and operational commercial, residential, office and institutional properties within the district is around 1.26 million square meters (sq m).
Projected GFA of proposed mixed-use developments in undeveloped lots within the district is around 2.1 million sq m. These new developments are expected to be completed in the next 10 years.
The new district will have Lawton Avenue as its main road, with direct access points towards Bonifacio Global City, a more developed mixed-use property by the Ayala group, via Lawton-Fifth Avenue connection, and Makati central business district.
By 2025, the district will be a location of one of the proposed stations of the ongoing Metro Manila Subway Project, initially named as Lawton East Station.