DoubleDragon plan to list industrial REIT gains steam

MANILA, Philippines — Property builder DoubleDragon Corp. has topped off a five-hectare warehouse complex in Cebu that will be included in the P25-billion portfolio of a future real estate investment trust (REIT).

In a disclosure, DoubleDragon said it now has 1.5 million square meters of gross floor area (GFA) following the completion of a warehouse project in Cebu.

The warehouse adds to the industrial portfolio of CentralHub Industrial Centers Inc., which is a joint venture between DoubleDragon and Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC).

DoubleDragon is beefing up CentralHub’s warehouse portfolio with the target of establishing a P24.8-billion leasing book. DoubleDragon plans to list the country’s first industrial REIT, aiming to capture investors who see potential in the warehouse industry.

CentralHub manages a portfolio that includes the largest commissary and distribution center of JFC in Laguna. In 2022 CentralHub also finished a project at the Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac to cater to the warehousing needs of manufacturers nearby.

DoubleDragon appears to be unstoppable in its expansion, especially after its net equity hit P102.1 billion in the first quarter, one of the few companies in the country with such a value.

Currently, DoubleDragon maintains a GFA of 1.5 million sqm from community malls in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, as well as office buildings in Metro Manila and hotels here and abroad.

Recently, DoubleDragon has made history by listing its subsidiary Hotel101 Global Pte. Ltd. at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in New York City, the first Filipino-owned company to do so.

Hotel101 aims to operate at least one million rooms in more than 100 countries across the globe. The company is building its first three overseas projects in Spain, Japan and the US.

In the Philippines, DoubleDragon manages several community malls in the countryside, mainly in Mindanao. The developer also has commercial interest in areas requiring further investments, such as Basilan in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

However, DoubleDragon has faced challenges materializing its plan to list the country’s maiden industrial REIT, which was initially scheduled to debut in 2022.