FORMER Sen. Manuel B. Villar Jr. announced plans to develop a sprawling 2,500-hectare property at the southern edge of Metro Manila into an upscale central business district that he said will rival those of the mature development of the Ayalas in the cities of Makati and Taguig.
Villar said the “Villar City” will be his legacy project that would take some years—or decades—for it to be completed. The family has accumulated these lands over the past 30 years.
He said the property is owned by his privately-held real estate company Villar Land Inc., which develops only upscale projects, and will be his final development project “because it will take more than the rest of my life to develop because of its size.”
It is currently at 2,000 hectares but the company can expand it to 2,500 hectares, according to the businessman.
“There is no other property near this size this close to Metro Manila,” Villar said in a briefing after the group’s online Retail Innovation Shopping Expo.
These lands are within the border or surrounded by 11 cities including Las Piñas, Parañaque, Alabang (in Muntinlupa), San Pedro (in Laguna), and Imus, Bacoor and Dasmariñas in Cavite.
“The property is the biggest contiguous lot in the south of Metro Manila and is right beside Ayala-Alabang so it will not have middle-income residential projects,” Villar said. “I will not be compromising of the quality and it will have beautiful, sprawling malls and upscale residential projects.”
He added that the property will be accessible via the Manila-Cavite Expressway and will be along the train route.
Villar didn’t identify yet the number of buildings that would compose “Villar City” but a hectare of land can fit at least four towers. This means his property can fit up to 10,000 buildings.
“But not all of it will be buildings. There will be parks, roads retail, residential and commercial, mostly for the middle and upscale sector,” he said.
While the property is held by Villar Land, the project will be developed mainly the Villar Group’s publicly-listed real estate firm Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc., which is already in the business of building malls, office and residential towers as well middle to upscale residential villages.
Some of the portions of the property have already been developed and includes the SOMO Market and NOMO-A Vista Lifestyle Center, both in Bacoor in Cavite and Evia shopping mall.
“I am spending the rest of my life here in this property. This is going to be the new Makati. I want to make this the CBD of the south. There is no rush to do an IPO for this project. There is no rush to develop this myself. I can pass this on (to my children),” Villar said.