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SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT — Unveiling a new concept in modern
condominium living, a Korean property developer here
inaugurated on Tuesday the Subic World Plaza (SWP), a
P120-million three-story project, the first in a planned
series of “conficetels”—condominium-office-hotel.
Located
at the heart of Subic’s central business district, the
SWP offers hotel rooms and commercial spaces on the
ground floor, and office suites and residential units on
the second and third floors.
“All the
units are now available for lease,” said Subic Daesung
Corp. (SDC) chairman Kim Tae Wan on Tuesday, adding that
residents will have easy access to shopping and dining
on the ground floor where he expects restaurants and
grocers would put up shops.
“The
upper levels, which contain offices and condominium
units, are meanwhile intended to provide a certain
degree of privacy,” he said.
Kim said
the SDC came up with the “conficetel” concept after
noting the increasing demand for commercial and
residential spaces here in Subic in the last three
years, especially among Korean investors and their
families when Korean shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries
& Construction Corp. started operations here in 2006.
The firm
also noted increasing tourist arrivals after the opening
of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway in April, as well
as the growing Korean community in the country.
“Subic
has become one of the Philippines’s prime tourist
destinations,” Kim pointed out. “Koreans prefer the
Philippines, especially Subic, as their place for
retirement.”
Because
of these factors, Kim said his company is eyeing more
“conficetels” here in the immediate future, a statement
supported by a ground-breaking for his firm’s Wellis
Conficetel project, a P770-million, 13-story edifice
that will have a state-of-the-art elevator car parking.
The
Wellis will have a total of 384 hotel and condominium
units and is expected to be completed in 18 months.
But
that’s not all. The Korean developer said that because
of “tremendous opportunities” in Subic, the SDC is
planning to construct five conficetels of 17 stories
each on a 3-hectare lot at Subic’s Boton Heights
commercial and industrial area.
Kim said
the five-building conficetel complex would be worth a
total of P6.75 billion, putting SDC’s potential capital
exposure at P7.64 billion.
In the
groundbreaking ceremony for the Wellis project, Subic
Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman Feliciano
Salonga assured Kim and his compatriots the Subic
authority would continue supporting the Korean business
community here.
Meanwhile, SWP project consultant Leonardo Mesiano
credited the growth of property development projects
here to the SBMA’s effective marketing program and the
agency’s partnership with operators of Subic’s tourism
facilities. |
