Office building to rise at Greenhills Center

By Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson

ORTIGAS LAND Corp. is developing an office building within the Greenhills Center in San Juan City, as the company bets on a rebound in office space demand after the pandemic.

GH Tower is part of the redevelopment of Greenhills Center as a “prime back-to-office location.” It will have a gross leasable area of 41,506 square meters covering 21 floors, with 15 dedicated for office space.

“We envisioned it to be a hybrid building to attract both traditional, multinational, and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies. It is a new office location within our Greenhills estate. We are hoping this kind of set-up will indeed attract multinational corporations,” Ortigas Land Head of Office Business Unit Trina R. Chan said in a virtual briefing last week.

She noted Ortigas Land had been receiving many inquiries about office spaces within the Greenhills Center.

“That made us think about it and consider it in our masterplan. Greenhills, being at the center of a lot of businesses, could attract traditional accounts. The floor plan of GH Tower is flexible enough,” Ms. Chan said.

The project is on track to be completed in May 2023.

GH Tower will have sustainable and eco-efficient features, including a rainwater collection system, 100% double-glazed glass ratio to allow in natural light, and energy-efficient LED lights, among others. The sixth floor will have a hotel-like lobby that provides a direct connection to the Greenhills Mall, as well as green and open spaces.

“We were even thinking the sixth floor could be a co-working space, but we will have to wait and see if this will be a location if they would be interested in setting up their businesses. We will see and observe if there will be a good demand for the Greenhills location,” Ms. Chan said.

CBRE Philippines Country Head Jie Espinosa said in a virtual briefing that there are many “encouraging signs” of recovery in the local office sector.

“The information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) industry continue to exhibit healthy growth, not just in Metro Manila but the province as well… This quarter compared to the same period last year, the increase we’re getting is so much higher. A lot of this is pent-up demand that were supposed to come in last year, but stalled because of the Omicron variant,” Mr. Espinosa said.

“We think we will see a more impactful number in terms of demand and transactions in the market,” he added.

Ortigas Land partnered with real estate brokers CBRE Philippines and JLL Philippines for the project.