ROBINSONS LAND Corp. (RLC) plans to open three new office buildings this year, as it targets to end 2018 with around half a million square meters (sq.m.) in leasable space.
Scheduled to open this year are Exxa and Zeta Towers, located inside RLC’s 30-hectare IT park called Bridgetowne in C-5 Road, Ugong Norte, Quezon City.
The company on Thursday topped off the Zeta Tower, which will be operational by the second half of the year. At 20 storeys, Zeta offers around 35,000 sq.m. of leasable space. Around 3,000 to 4,000 sq.m. is allotted for retail space on the ground level, open to a total of 20 food and service outlet tenants.
Meanwhile, RLC is currently finishing construction of the Exxa Tower. The building is similar to Zeta, with 20 storeys and a floor plate of 2,489 sq.m.
Also set to open this year is the Cyberspace Gamma, located along Topaz and Ruby Roads in Ortigas Center, Pasig City. The tower stands 37 storeys high and will be connected to the company’s other building in the area, Cyberspace Beta.
All the buildings are registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. Rental rates in the office buildings will average P750 per sq.m., which the company said is in line with current prevailing rates in Quezon City.
“(We are targeting) BPOs (business process outsourcing), offshore, outsourcing industry, plus serviced offices and traditional offices,” RLC General Manager for the Office Buildings Division Faraday D. Go told reporters after the topping off ceremony for Zeta Tower on Thursday.
With the three towers having a combined gross leasable area (GLA) of 113,000 sq.m., RLC will end 2018 with 518,000 sq.m. under its portfolio, with 20 operating office buildings. This is 28% higher than the 405,000-sq.m. GLA the company had in 2017.
RLC has also lined up five more office developments in Bridgetowne IT park in the coming years. The company is currently completing the fourth tower in the project called Giga, and is now planning to launch three more.
“With this park it’s very close to the east, that’s Antipolo, Cainta, Pasig… Marami silang talent na makukuha from here (They can recruit a lot talent from the area). That’s why it’s preferred by a lot of BPOs (business process outsourcing companies). And the accessibility here, it is very convenient because there’s a lot of public transport right along Ortigas and C-5,” Mr. Go said, adding the location serves as an alternative to the Ortigas business district.
Mr. Go said they are looking to build office towers in the provincial areas as well.
“We are looking at provincial sites in VisMin (Visayas and Mindanao), and also in North Luzon and South Luzon,” Mr. Go said.
The office segment accounted for P2.14 billion or 14% of RLC’s total revenues for the January to September period in 2017.
RLC’s net income attributable to the parent stood at P4.57 billion in the first nine months of 2017, slightly higher than the P4.5 billion recorded in the same period in 2016, as revenues dipped 2% to P16.6 billion during the period.
Shares in RLC lost 65 centavos or 3.15% to finish at P20 each at the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday. — Arra B. Francia
