PEZA-accredited Faustina draws interest from firms

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City’s newly-built office building, the Faustina Center, has reported a good tenant interest following its accreditation from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).

Developed by BF Access Management Ventures Inc., the 14-story building will soon be the home of expanding business process management (BPM) firms amid the hybrid working set up—a combination of work-from-home (WFH) and office.

According to Clifton Paray of BF Access Management Ventures Inc., obtaining a PEZA accreditation is one lure of gaining interest from tenants.

While office leasing industry is still at its low point due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Paray said more BPM firms have already expressed interest to locate at the building while some job requirements in the outsourcing sector need traditional office set up.

Aside from its PEZA accreditation, Paray also attributed the good tenant turnout to Faustina Center’s feature as green building. Currently, the company is applying for Edge Certified Green Building certification.

Faustina Center, located within the the Bonifacio District ALONG F. Cabahug St., Cebu City, has 22,000 square meters of leasable area.

The IT building is open to housing business process management (BPM), knowledge process outsourcing, and English as second language, traditional offices and commercial and retail tenants.

Paray’s statement is backed up by global real estate services organization Colliers Philippines, which said investors are now looking outside Cebu’s two business districts—Cebu IT Park and Cebu Business Park—to set up their businesses.

“Before, everything was centralized in Cebu IT Park and Cebu Business Park. But right now because it is getting congested, buildings such as Faustina, which are not far away from these business districts and still located on major thoroughfares, are attractive and because of the pandemic they (locators) don’t want to be in highly dense areas,” said Colliers Philippines Maricris Sarino-Joson, director for Office Services.

Joson noted that outsourcing firms continue to keep Metro Cebu on their radar, particularly those PEZA-accredited office buildings.

Colliers Philippines latest report indicated that from 2021 to 2023, there will be about 109,000 square meters of new PEZA-proclaimed office spaces.

PEZA-proclaimed spaces enjoy fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.

Metro Cebu office posted positive net absorption in first quarter 2021, ending the two consecutive quarters of negative net take-up. Demand was mainly driven by outsourcing and traditional occupiers.

“We see demand slowly recovering by the end of 2021, depending upon the pace of the vaccine roll out,” she projected.

“From 2021 to 2025, we see the annual completion of about 88,800 sq metres (955,500 sq feet) of new office space, up eight percent from our previous forecast of 81,900 sq metres (881,200 sq feet) at the end of 2020. Cebu Business and IT Parks are likely to account for 44 percent of the new supply during the period,” Joson concluded.