DAVAO CITY—A local hotelier here has repositioned itself in the league of mega-property development after it announced it was finally completing its major high-rise here, with some of the city’s firsts to introduce itself.
Its Aeon Towers 1, set for completion at the end of the year, would be the tallest building complying with the city’s building height limit. The company said Aeon Towers would still be uncontested as to its earlier promise to be Mindanao’s first, and one of only a handful of the country’s fully lighted buildings.
The completion this year of the Aeon Towers along Bajada here came with the company’s announcement of it developing another five-building residences, the city’s first inland residential-condotel resort about 2 kilometers to the west of the Aeon Towers.
The Davao City-based Aeon Luxe Properties Inc. said the 33-story Aeon Towers would be completed and turned over to a prestigious US managing firm by December, seven years after it was started and two years behind its target date of completion.
When ready to operate, the mixed-use residences, businesses and hotel tower would be the only fully lighted building in Mindanao and the fixtures, partying and events at the deck, would be seen from a passing airplane, the owners said.
Ian Y. Cruz, president of Aeon Luxe Properties Inc., has likened the tower to the Marina Bay Sands of Singapore with its observatory deck and infinity pool, although the latter has a score of floors higher than the Aeon Towers.
Andrew P. Bautista, the company’s vice president for sales, said the remaining construction work involved the interiors before the thick glass imported from Europe would be installed progressively.
“Before we install the glass walls, workers must have finished the interior works to allow them sufficient space,” he said. “It’s construction from inside out.”
The foundation has been dug deep with an equivalent of four stories, with another 60 meters further down to bolster the foundation, “which caused the delay in the completion.”
“We want premium residences with premium security,” he said.
Aeon Towers has scraped the building-height limitation of the city, reaching 103.5 meters, making it the tallest in the city, and “making us prouder still to have been the benchmark of the city’s height limitation,” he added.
From atop at the deck, the towers provide an unobstructed view of the scenic Island Garden City of Samal to the south and the majestic Mount Apo, the country’s highest peak, to the west.
The Aeon Towers was scheduled to open its condominium components, located on its ninth to 12th floors, at the last quarter and its hotel component, called the Vivid Hotel, located on the seventh and eighth floors, as well as on the 29th and 30th floors, by the end of the year.
The Aeon Towers has 522 hotel, condominium and apartment units.
Chinese and Japanese chefs have been tapped for its food and beverage section, while a group from Thailand has also written a letter of intent for inclusion.
The company spent P4.5 billion to construct the Aeon Towers.
Another multibillion-peso project was in the offing for the company, to build a five residential-tower resort at the uptown section just about 2 kilometers north of downtown Davao, and would be called the Aeon Bleu.
The same company would undertake the construction and development of the project, with a much bigger capacity of 1,600 units, with the first two building towers to be opened for preselling within the year.
The total cost would still be estimated, Cruz said.
The Aeon Bleu would be launched as soon as the permits and licenses are completed by the end of the first quarter, he said.
Bautista added there were more projects at the pipeline within the next few years, but did not disclose their number.
The property development venture of the Davao City-based corporation would be placed under the FTC Group as the holdings company. That was the original name of the company when it undertook the construction of the seven-story FTC Tower along Mayon Street.
The FTC Tower is located at the northern section of the downtown with several colleges around, two tertiary hospitals, the oldest public market, and a shopping mall near the city’s oldest street of San Pedro.
Bautista said the company would be aggressive with its multimillion-peso property development to fill in the demand for housing and residential units “as more people are still coming in to migrate to this city.”
“Based on our database, the bulk of people looking for a place to stay or migrate here are from Luzon and the Visayas. Overseas Filipinos are still a main group of buyers,” he said.
“The inquiries are still heating up, indicating a still-spiking interest in Davao City as a place to relocate,” he added.
Business and investments are also booming. “It looks like this city would be turned into a Makati of Mindanao.”
“We want to take a slice of this market, and to show to the rest of the world we have the capacity to show that aesthetics and premium services could go together, at a cost lower than current pricing in the hotel and residences business,” he said.
“We are building the Aeon Towers, for instance, not simply to be in the business. We are building the tower to help and contribute to building presentable and iconic structures that Davao City would be prouder still,” Bautista added.