Saturday, March 29, 2014

Developer launches P700M office tower


-AA+A

INSTEAD of going residential for its first vertical project, homegrown developer King Properties decided to jumpstart its first high-rise project with an office tower in the center of Cebu City’s major business hubs.
The P700-million tower, Avenir, will house a mix of office spaces, which include office suites, executive offices and home office suites. It is situated in a 25,000-square-meter property at the heart of Barangays Lahug, Mabolo, and Banilad.
Richard King, King Properties executive director, said the decision of the company was prompted by the high demand for offices in Cebu, especially now that there is a growing number of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, entrepreneurs and independent professionals.
“Cebu is an entrepreneurial hub…There really is a high demand for such kind of projects in Cebu. There’s a lot of lawyers, accountants, freelancers and consultants who need offices,” King told reporters.
The project highlights its home office suites, which offer the flexibility of having a home unit and an office unit. Floor area ranges from 25 to 60 square meters. To optimize the owner’s working and living space, units come out in an optional fit-out package.
Lorraine Tan, King Properties sales and marketing consultant, said the company is one of the first in Cebu to offer home office suites. A home office suite, she said, comes with a kitchen, toilet and bathroom.
Of the 256 offices in Avenir, 183 will be home offices, 66 will be executive offices and seven will be premier offices.
Avenir’s premier offices, which will offer bigger spaces, are ideal for BPOs, said Tan.
Avenir will also be equipped with a fiber-optic backbone to serve the
telecommunication needs of BPOs and other businesses. The developer has also promised to provide 100 percent back-up power generation.
Avenir is a Philippine Economic Zone Authority-accredited site, which means locators can avail themselves of the government’s fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.
To address service needs of businesses, it also has put up a business club, Avant, which will provide subscription-based business solution services like call and mail handling, print and copy services, contract management, and lead generation, among others.
It will also offer shared facilities like a business lounge, virtual workstations and conference rooms.
Aside from end-users purchasing an office suite in Avenir, Tan has called on potential buyers to invest in office units in the same way they consider buying a condominium unit as a form of investment.
She said investors can rent their office units to others for a minimum contract of three years. “This is a good investment because rental increases by year,” she said.
She expects there will be a 20 percent appreciation of unit prices after the turnover, which is scheduled in the third quarter of 2016.
King Properties Corp. is also the developer of Modena subdivisions in Mactan and Minglanilla. It has already constructed 400 houses and will add 150 houses in the town of Consolacion, with the project launch targeted this year.
King said for their vertical projects, the company will concentrate on office towers. Vertical residential towers are still not in the pipeline.

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