Suntrust Properties, Inc. celebrates 21st anniversary
Twenty-one years since its establishment, there’s no stopping Suntrust Properties, Inc. (SPI) from doing what it does best: building bang-for-the-buck homes. It is also relentless in its pursuit to expand, which allows it to reach more Filipino families dreaming of having a place to call their own.
In late June of this year, the subsidiary of the property behemoth Megaworld Corp. completed the purchase of another developer, Stateland, Inc., which has been in the real estate industry for four decades. As a result of this acquisition, SPI now caters to a broader range of property seekers.
“Stateland will focus on prices below P3 million. That will include what we call socialized housing. While Suntrust will stick with its present dominant markets: the middle and upper middle,” said Atty. Harrison M. Paltongan, president of Suntrust Properties, Inc.
SPI, under Mr. Paltongan’s hopeful and inspiring leadership, has steadily put together an impressive portfolio of horizontal and vertical properties, particularly in Southern Luzon provinces and Metro Manila.
Among which are the Governor’s Hills and Cyberville in Cavite; Sta. Rosa Heights, Sta. Rosa Hills, The Mandara, and Verona in Laguna; Adriatico Gardens and Suntrust Parkview in Manila; and Suntrust Shanata and Capitol Plaza in Quezon City. Units of some of these aforementioned properties have already been turned over to their ecstatic owners.
SPI’s portfolio keeps on expanding as the company simultaneously builds different properties in different parts of the country. It has two condominium projects in the works in Davao, One Lakeshore Drive and Two Lakeshore Drive, both located within the Megaworld-Suntrust township, Davao Park District.
In Bacolod, another Megaworld-Suntrust township is being developed called the North Hill Gateway and within it is Suntrust’s The Fountain Grove. SPI is also about to develop its next big project in Baguio, The Mist, following Suntrust 88 Gibraltar near the tourist spot Mines View Park.
SPI has also gone into building an industrial park. All the lots made available for purchase in the 111-hectare Suntrust Ecotown Tanza in Cavite, Mr. Paltongan said, are already sold out. He noted that many export-oriented factories are currently being constructed in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority-registered industrial park.
The phase two of Suntrust Ecotown Tanza, which spans 41.5 hectares, is under land development. It will soon be the site of many residential and commercial properties.
“The expansion is purely for industrial though we envision the township development to be comprised of residential, commercial, and government institutions,” Mr. Paltongan said.
This industrial park was recently recognized at the 2018 Property and Real Estate Excellence Awards organized by the International Real Estate Federation of the Philippines, bagging a gold award.
Critical to the success of SPI is its people, particularly the very people building the properties it sells. And so the company devoted to them its 21st anniversary celebration at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City last Nov. 15.
“We want them to feel that they’re part of the Suntrust group,” Mr. Paltongan said. “And we want them to feel the importance of their role.”
Hundreds of site workers were treated to a day of fun at the arena. They also took home with them gifts — sacks of rice, groceries, bicycles, cash — that were voluntarily given by the corporate employees and sales agents of Suntrust.
“What we did was give our employees and salespeople the opportunity to share their blessings. We explain that when we talk about family, it includes site construction workers,” Atty. Paltongan said.
This is now becoming a tradition for Suntrust. Last year, during the company’s 20th anniversary, Suntrust granted the wishes of many site workers, like plane tickets to their home provinces, medical assistance, and home appliances, among others, moving some of the workers to tears.
Looking ahead, Atty. Paltongan said they aim to continue to expand and have adopted a motto that embodies that ambition: Inspire to aspire. “We are urging our employees to aspire for something greater,” he said.
And allowing more families to have their own home is certainly a noble aspiration to have.
