ALI, RLC eye Boni South property

MANILA, Philippines - Property giants Ayala Land Inc. and Robinsons Land Corp. are waiting for the guidelines and terms of reference (ToR) for the bidding of the P13.3-billion Bonifacio South property in Taguig City.

The 33.1-hectare property, currently occupied by the Army Support Command and Special Services Unit of the Philippine Army, the Bonifacio Naval Station and the Philippine Marine Corps of the Philippine Navy, will be bid out in the middle of February.

ALI president Antonino T. Aquino said the TOR will form the basis of the company’s decision whether or not to bid for the property.

RLC president and chief operating officer Frederick D. Go, on the other hand, said the company wants to clarify certain things first and may likely decide whether to go for it next month.

The TOR will be issued from Jan. 3 to 16. Interested parties must pay a non-refundable fee of P500,000 for the bid documents. A pre-bid conference will be held on Jan. 17.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority has set the floor price at P13.3 billion and opened the bidding to foreign firms with a Filipino partner.

The minimum bid price is P54,000 per square meter, of which P40,000 is the cash component and P14,000 will involve the relocation and replication of military facilities.

The winning bidder will have to enter into a joint venture with BCDA to develop the property. The government will take a 45 percent equity stake in the joint venture company.

SM Land Inc., the original proponent of the project, had questioned the government’s move to subject the land to a public bidding. It filed a petition for mandamus, asserting that the BCDA should proceed with its unsolicited proposal.

BCDA president and chief executive officer Arnel Paciano D. Casanova, however, said he sees no legal impediment to the auction despite a pending appeal by SM Land before the Supreme Court.

SM Land had offered P36,900 per square meter for the project.

According to the BCDA, SM Land is welcome to join the public bidding.

Under the Bonifacio South Pointe master plan, the property will be developed into a medium- to high-density residential and mixed-use complex, with a maximum allowable gross floor area of 1.355 million square meters.