W Group bullish as projects in BGC almost fully leased out

MANILA, Philippines — Property development firm W Group Inc. remains bullish on the local real estate market, particularly in business district Bonifacio Global City (BGC), as its  high-quality office developments continue to be in high demand apparently immune from the adverse effects on the economy by the COVID-19 pandemic.

W Group Inc., the holding company behind iconic BGC properties such as W CityCenter, Citi Plaza and W Fifth Avenue, said it is optimistic on the property sector’s performance as big industry players continuously expand and improve their workplace locations amid the pandemic.

At the end of December 2020, W Fifth Avenue secured a 98 percent occupancy rate; W CityCenter had a 99.6 percent occupancy rate; while Citi Plaza was 99 percent occupied.

“Despite the pandemic, we take pride that most of our buildings in BGC are almost fully leased, with major tenants renewing their long-term leases only recently,” said Francis Wee, CEO of the W Group.

W Group, which built its fortune from the seaweeds and carrageenan business, has always emphasized high-value and good-quality in its property developments in BGC under its real estate arm, W Landmark Inc. Just recently, W Landmark was awarded the ISO 9001:2015 certification for quality management systems and operations across its properties. Its leading property, W CityCenter, was also recently awarded the LEED Gold certificate by Green Business Certification Inc., the world’s leading sustainability and health certification body.

W Landmark owns and manages several buildings in Bonifacio Global City, many of them office towers whose major tenants are multinational companies.

Those office towers include the W Fifth Avenue, a Grade A, PEZA-registered building with 36,000 sqm of gross leasable area; the W CityCenter that was designed by New York-based architectural firm CAZA with 59,000 sqm of gross leasable space; and the Citi Plaza, an office tower built to house the bank’s back-office operations with 49,000 sqm of gross leasable area.