AN upcoming township project just a stone thrown away from President Duterte’s humble abode in his hometown Matina, Davao City, has just started ground developments on its initial phase to meet its target completion in 2022.
The P33-billion Davao Global Township (DGT) is now being constructed by YHEST Realty and Development Corp., a joint venture of Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI) and the Yuson, Huang and Tan families belonging to the Villa-Abrille clan of Davao.
Phase 1, with an estimated cost of P10 billion, spans at 93,000 square meters of gross floor area, housing a retail strip with a cineplex, outdoor retail spaces called the DGT Town Strip and a civic center to be named DGT Gallery envisioned by YHEST with global planning and design firm RTKL.
“The size of the DGT property, our first township development, will allow us to have a diversity of uses to make a complete and truly sustainable community,” said YHEST Chairman, and CLI Chairman and CEO Joe Soberano.
“We envision DGT to be the central business district with a dynamic lifestyle that will provide economic and social value to Davao, one of the fastest-growing economic regions in the country,” he added.
DGT is the third and biggest project of YHEST Realty, in partnership with CLI, as it aims to become the regional top property company in the Philippines.
Inspired by the Cebu IT Park and the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, this 22-hectare project is expected to host business-process outsourcing and other firms.
“These are exciting times for Davao and the Philippines as this tie-up [with CLI] ushers a new generation of local homegrown developers ready to be at par with the best of the world,” said YHEST President Fred Yuson.
“As the [fifth-generation] descendants of Juna Villa-Abrille, we commit ourselves to his legacy of hard work, humility and generosity. We are happy that in our generation, we are able to kick-start all these simultaneous developments and there’s no better way but to partner with VisMin’s leading developer Cebu Landmasters,” he noted.
The Villa-Abrille family is among the oldest clans in Davao that is into leasing of commercial offices and buildings, such as Matina IT Park and Sutherland Global Services.
It launched the province’s first residential subdivision in 1952 and put up the Davao City Golf Club, the first and oldest of its kind in the city, until it was closed in 2018 to make way for DGT.
Other projects it has, in collaboration with CLI, included MesaTierra, a garden residential condominium that is already 98 percent sold-out; and the Paragon Davao, a mixed-use lifestyle property that will host Citadines Paragon Davao and residential tower One Paragon Place that is already 75 percent sold in first three weeks of selling.
“Things are happening fast in our generation and we trust CLI’s expertise particularly in the VisMin market,” Yuson said.