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ROBINSONS Land Corp. launched the first of its three
residential condominium projects that is part of a
planned P10-billion capital spending this year.
Sonata
Private Residences, a master-planned mixed-use property
in Ortigas Center, Pasig City, would add to the more
than 50 real-estate projects the company is working on,
chief operating officer Frederick D. Go told reporters
Monday.
Go said
the company does not disclose how much it is spending
for the two 29-story buildings—a luxury hotel and an
office building.
However,
he said the company paid P1 billion for the corporation
that owned the one hectare lot where
Medical City
used to stand. “When [Medical City] moved to the Meralco
complex, we saw the opportunity to strengthen our hold
on the Ortigas business district market,” Go said.
Sonata
would be rising from the land across Edsa Shangri-La
Hotel behind the headquarters of San Miguel Corp. Go
said they are targeting the high-end market for the
units that would sell starting at P85,000 per square
meter (sqm)— Roughly $2,036 ($1=P41.7542), or more than
double the average $965 per square-foot price of a condo
unit in
New York City.
Sonata
would sell one bedroom units of 36.25 sqm to 55.15 sqm;
two-bedroom units of 75.10 sqm to 101.45 sqm; and
three-bedroom units of 115.90 sqm to 151.15 sqm. The
price per unit would range from P3 million to P12.85
million.
“It’s
more of an aberration on our part since most of our
projects are really focused on the mid-income segment,”
Go said.
“The
next phase of construction of the hotel and the office
building would be entirely dependent on the residential
project,” said Go, nephew of business tycoon John
Gokongwei Jr.
Sonata
is one of 11 real-estate projects publicly listed
Robinsons Land plans to launch this year, according to
Go, saying Robinsons Land this year would also start
building three shopping malls, two hotels and three
subdivisions outside Metro Manila.
In June,
they would be launching the second-residential project
for the year at Fort Bonifacio. Called Gateway, it would
be built on a 2,000-sqm property the company bought from
Ayala Land Inc. in 2006.
He said
the company remains optimistic about the industry
despite fears brought about by the
US
housing sector slump.
“The
industry is affected but [the US subprime crisis] is
irrelevant to us,” Go told BusinessMirror. Because 85
percent of their sales come from the domestic market, he
explained. |
