Megaworld Corp. Chairman Andrew L. Tan disclosed the company’s plan to build 20 new malls, as it ramps up its retail offerings in its township projects.
Tan, speaking during Wednesday’s Outstanding Filipino Retailers’ and Shopping Centers of the Year (OFR-SCY) Awards of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA), also said the property developer may hike its capital expenditures (capex) for the next five to eight years. The 20 new malls and commercial centers, Tan said, will be built in Megaworld township projects across the country and will cater to residents and business-process outsourcing (BPO) employees in its developments.
“Today we have around 250,000 residents and 150,000 BPO and office workers in our communities. The number of BPO workers alone in our communities already comprises around 15 percent of the entire BPO population in the country,” said Tan, who received the PRA’s President’s Award as the “Pillar of Mixed-Use Developments” at the 18th OFR-SCY Awards.
Megaworld is currently in the midst of its P230-billion capital spending for its five township projects to bring its integrated developments to 20 by 2020.
Last year Megaworld announced that it is spending P230 billion for its existing townships until 2019. This figure is exclusive of the development costs for the five new townships that the company is launching this year.
“Definitely we will be hiking our five-year capex,” Harold Geronimo, the company’s head of public relations and communications, said.
Tan said its 20 townships will be home to around 600,000 condominium and village residents, and 400,000 BPO and office workers.
“By 2020, we expect to increase our total population by 150 percent in all of our urban townships, which will reach at least 1 million,” Tan said.
Tan said the increase in population in its mixed-use communities “indicates the opportunities that await the company’s commercial and retail partners.”
For more than two decades, Megaworld has built malls and commercial centers in each of its townships to primarily cater to the growing communities within its developments.
Among its malls and commercial centers are the Eastwood Mall, Citywalk 1 and 2, and Cyber and Fashion Mall in Eastwood City; Newport Mall in Newport City; Venice Piazza and Tuscany in McKinley Hill and Lucky Chinatown in Binondo, Manila.
There will be new malls in Uptown Bonifacio and McKinley Hill, both in Fort Bonifacio. They are expected to open within the year.
“Condominium residents, for example, need not go far to buy groceries and gifts, or even watch movies. BPO workers, on the other hand, need not take public transportation just to buy food or eat in restaurants. In our communities, everything is just within reach,” Tan said.
Megaworld started its commercial and retail business when Eastwood City was established in 1999. Eastwood City, the country’s first cyberpark, is now home to almost 25,000 condominium residents and around 70,000 BPO and office workers. It used to be a 16-hectare township but it expanded its land area last year.