New Filinvest City community offers city living sans pollution

MANILA, Philippines - Highly prized for the breathing space and visual relief they offer to urban residents, parks and green open spaces allow surrounding communities to command higher values. Rising next to Festival Alabang’s River Park highlighted by outdoor activities including this Christmas season’s Filinvest City Light Show, the Parkway Place neighborhood in this southern metropolis is expected to merit higher property prices with the recent completion of the park.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of the River Park and its selection of restaurants and stores will be residents of the 40-story residential condominium Bristol at Parkway Place. When finished in 2018, Bristol’s imposing silhouette will permit residents not just views of the River Park from their units and its Sky Lounge but also glimpses of Laguna de Bay.

Catherine A. Ilagan, executive vice president of Filinvest, says the Bristol, which has been designed by architects with international exposure, follows through with the standards set for the Parkway Place community. “As we speak, it will be the tallest structure in the city, a distinction reserved for this project since it is at the gateway to our 244-hectare business district.”

With the 14th of 40 stories now completed, the Bristol which is near the Filinvest exit of the South Luzon Expressway is already catching visitors’ attention. Moreover, its distinct qualities are being warmly received by buyers as indicated by its steady price appreciation.

Ilagan discloses that the Parkway Place community has been envisioned as premium condominium complex that will define the Filinvest City skyline. The Bristol is the second tower following Aspen. The rest of the development will be built out as activity increases in this emerging business district.

But this early, Parkway Place has already been identified by global travellers and the expat community as a preferred residential location. Tet Lim, a resident of the first Parkway Place tower, Aspen, relates she and her children who were born and raised in Italy, are right at home in the neighborhood where they moved from Europe in 2012. “It’s green and unpolluted here,” she says.  On weekends, her family picnics in the nearby greens and the children bike freely. They also enjoy walking to Festival Mall and have sampled some of the restaurants at the River Park.

Ilagan foresees residential units at the Parkway Place will also be the preferred option of expats who work in Filinvest City or in the industrial areas of Calabarzon. Currently, strong demand from foreigners for residential units at Aspen and nearby buildings have given rise to lease contracts that stipulate payments one year in advance. Payments are non-refundable should the lessor vacate the premises before the 12 months are up. Now pre-selling, Bristol has also been warmly received by the market by both foreign and local buyers.

Parkway Place is bound to be a dynamic community within the growing Filinvest City, observes Lim. It is far from the pollution that expats and executives would encounter in the other business districts, a distinction that Parkway Place and Filinvest City intend to maintain over the long run.