LEGAZPI CITY—Ayala Corp. (AC), one of the country’s business giants, is now part of Legazpi City’s bandwagon of big investors that earlier flocked to the city—SM Prime Holdings of Henry Sy and Robinsons Group of the Gokongwei family.
AC is pouring into the city an initial amount of P1 billion for the establishment of the City Center Mall on a 1.5-hectare lot owned by the city government at the heart of the city’s central business district, according to Legazpi Mayor Noel Rosal.
The property has been leased by the city government to Liberty Commercial Center Inc. (LCCI) of the Tan family, a Filipino-Chinese clan from Tabaco City, which pioneered the putting up of malls here and most parts of Bicol starting in the late 1970s.
LCCI runs Liberty Commercial Center, which has a chain of malls and grocery stores in the city, and several urban centers in the Bicol region.
Under the contract signed in late 2013 by LCCI with the city, government, the property is leased for an annual base rent of P5.775 million and, pursuant to the express provision of the Contract of Lease, the company has paid a construction performance bond in the amount equivalent to 30 percent of the proposed structure’s estimated cost in order to guarantee the full implementation of the project.
The project cost was not mentioned in the document covering the contract but sources said it is in the vicinity of about P1 billion to cover the development of the site into a world-class shopping and lifestyle center featuring a four-level modern mall building.
Rosal on Thursday said the project was taken over late last year by AC, which vowed to finish it this year.
He is confident the Ayala company could do it without hitches, knowing its reputation as one of the largest integrated property developers in Southeast Asia that offers innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities with the development of malls, residences, offices, hotels and convention centers.
With this new billion-peso investment, the mayor said, AC joins SM and Robinsons in the bandwagon of grand investors in the city that has been emerging as the new shopping and investment haven in Bicol, given its strategic location and its being the regional government center, and center of transportation, health services and education.
The city boasts of an expansive market that extends from the entire province of Albay to the adjoining provinces of Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate and Sorsogon, up to Samar areas.
Shadowed by the majestic Mount Mayon and named the “City of Fun and Adventure” by the world’s travel industry, Legazpi is also the heart of Albay and Sorsogon tourism.
SM Prime Holdings now runs its grand SaveMore grocery store within the sprawling City Grand Terminal Complex and has two branches of its Banco de Oro in the city.
Robinsons, on the other hand, has its supermarket at a prime location near the city hall and the Albay provincial capitol as part of one of the largest and most successful chains of malls in the country today. The Gokongwei group also acquired in 2012 the Legazpi Savings Bank, the biggest thrift bank in Bicol based here, from Nacionalista Party Rep. Al Francis Bichara of Albay.
Rosal said both SM and Robinsons are still looking for spacious lands for their respective plans of putting up more commercial establishments in the city.
“We are impressed by this response of the country’s leading investors to our call for investments after the Department of Trade and Industry cited Legazpi as the most business-friendly city in Bicol for its prompt compliance with the government’s simplified Business Permit and Licensing System,” Rosal said.
The Department of the Interior and Local government (DILG) has also named Legazpi as Bicol’s “most business-friendly local government unit,” citing its effectiveness and efficiency in paving the way for the place to become a haven of investments.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry has recognized the city as the most business-friendly for the whole of South Luzon.
The Asian Institute of Management named Legazpi as one of the most competitive cities in the Philippines.
Apart from that, the city is also recognized as one of the best places of business-process outsourcing outside Metro Manila when it advanced in 2011 to the 10 next-wave cities in the country’s industry list of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines.
Early last year the city government won its second Seal of Good Housekeeping from the DILG for its excellence in the field of good governance, measured by administrative, social, economic, environmental and other forms of achievements, that benefited both the community and its constituents.
It was followed by an award given by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and the Department of National Defense last March, which honored the city government as the 2013 national champion in the Gawad Kalasag Awards.
In October last year the city government was awarded three more national championship accolades that came in a row within a week’s time—the Most Livable City Award, Galing Pook Award and Silver Governance Trailblazer Award for excellence in the implementation of Public Governance System.
Ahead of SM, Robinsons and AC, the Gaisano Grand Group of Companies of the Cebu-based Gaisano family has established here the Pacific Mall Legazpi, the first full-sized integrated shopping center in the Bicol region.
The mall that was opened in 2001 occupies a 2-hectare property and is the centerpiece of the Landco Business Park, a master-planned central business district in the heart of the city.
PNA