Megaworld hikes capex to P23 B for new office buildings

MANILA, Philippines - Andrew Tan-led property developer Megaworld Corp. is raising its capital expenditures for its office space expansion in its various townships in Fort Bonifacio to P23 billion from P20 billion.

A ranking company official said the increased budget takes into account the construction of new office buildings at its Mckinley West township.

 In its 34.5-hectare Mckinley West township, Megaworld is building 10 West Campus, a new high-rise office tower that would provide an additional 32,000 square meters of leasable office spaces.

 The new tower will stand 17-storys high with 13 floors allocated for offices, three floors for podium parking, and a ground floor dedicated to retail and recruitment centers for business process outsourcing (BPO) tenants.

 “We are upbeat about McKinley West because this township stands in a very premium location right beside Forbes Park and has a convenient, fast access to Makati CBD, C5 Road, South Luzon Expressway and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport,” said Megaworld senior vice president Jericho Go.

The additional 32,000 sqm will complement the initial 66,000 sqm of leasable office space to be offered by the six campus-type office towers (One West Campus, Two West Campus, Three West Campus, Five West Campus, Six West Campus and Eight West Campus).

 Go said the six campus-type towers were already 70 percent pre-leased to mostly information technology (IT) and BPO companies. All of these towers will be fully leased by the second half of the year. On the other hand, almost a quarter of 10 West Campus is now pre-committed.

 All office towers in McKinley West will be registered for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) of the US Green Building Council, Go said.

 “We envision McKinley West as a sustainable, environment-friendly township. With this, we design our office towers in a way that they adhere and comply with the international standards on sustainability and green practices,” he said.

Within the next two years, the company will have more than 30 office towers in Fort Bonifacio alone, Go said.

 Megaworld is optimistic it can hit its target of one million square meters of leasable office space as early as 2017 from a previous timetable of 2018 to 2019.