IN all honesty, most real-estate developers pretend to be a friend of heritage, but the truth is it’s really a pain in their ass. Most of them even consider it a nuisance.
Developers firmly stand by the belief that heritage is pro-development; however, the mere concept of heritage conservation seems to oppose all kinds of development, and that’s something property developers are having a really hard time dealing with.
I was fortunate enough to have exchanged insights with members of the local heritage-preservation community for quite some time now. I’ve had the privilege of working with them in the course of our provenance-building work for our tourism and real-estate clients in GeiserMaclang, as well as during the last two Heritage and Conservation Summits, spearheaded by my good friend, Ivan Henares of the Heritage Conservation Society.
So, the question is: What benefits do developers stand to gain if they decide to pursue heritage-conservation initiatives? I remember getting valuable insights related to this topic from Eric Manuel of the Urban Land Institute of the Philippines during his presentation in one of the heritage summits I’ve attended.
For one, according to him, developers readily enjoy the privilege of conserving the most authentic and iconic features of existing heritage structures. If their efforts prove to be successful, they can easily build a strong reputation as an advocate of our country’s culture and heritage.
Another thing is they can plan for diverse and frequent changes in uses when investing in new buildings.
They can design flexible interior spaces that appeal, either to a niche market or to the international community. Apart from these, they can also show their strengths as developers by backing efforts to make diverse mixed-use neighborhoods out of heritage communities.
Solving this dilemma
AS I’ve said in my past columns here, property developers need to revisit how they view the idea of heritage by making it a key component in their efforts to prime developments and build a suitable character for their projects.
The first step to take is to recognize that there are plenty of developers, who genuinely love heritage and continue to seek ways to make efforts to champion it investor-friendly. Nobody in the heritage industry would want to see a city as a dilapidated ruin. What’s missing is clarity in terms of the heritage preservation strategy of cities.
Clearly, we are never going to be a city that looks like it did 80 years ago, so, having a strategy designed around that, does not make sense.
On the other hand, tossing up our hands and saying, “Let’s erase all the architectural cultural character” seems to go in the other direction.
It’s time to clarify and know in certain terms which buildings represent the heritage we are trying to preserve and what buildings are just buildings so the investment community can feel safe putting their money into rebuilding a city, for example, that should have been redeveloped a couple of decades ago.
This is exactly the reason you can’t help but really commend the efforts of Anchor Land as they promote the urban regeneration of Manila through the Admiral Boutique Hotel.
Despite having to endure tons of criticisms as they push forward the revival of the iconic Admiral Hotel, they continued to stand by what they felt was the right thing to do, and that is, to bring to reality the country’s first MGallery Hotel and make Manila more investor-friendly, while also paying respect to the celebrated heritage of the building.
Is heritage development a risk worth taking?
THIS is a constant question that looms above every developer’s head.
In Bonifacio Global City (BGC), for example, a property developer would have to spend a big chunk of money to build something really unusual, something that will stand out in a district where towering skyscrapers and modern architecture is a norm.
But what if you do it in Manila, instead? It’s much easier to build an iconic property with heritage, than build an iconic property from scratch. It’s less expensive and it helps you establish a fantastic reputation for your organization.
Coming up with iconic projects that represent heritage and reflect your values as a developer is an investment every real-estate firm should begin training their sights on. These developments can serve as viable marketing tools for your brands and your portfolio of products.
As I mentioned before, when clients walk into your showroom and ask you samples of what you have accomplished, they may not necessarily know what you are talking about right at the onset.
But, if you cite specific examples, or visionary projects—especially those anchored on heritage preservation and how you’ve brought down structures blossoming into real landmarks—they easily get the picture and regard you as a credible developer they can fully give their trust to.
In closing, what I would like to share is that, for heritage development efforts to really become successful, developers must have a multi-stakeholder approach to doing business.
The idea is proactively engage a community of stakeholders and help the public understand the value you intend to uphold through a multisectoral involvement in heritage conservation initiatives.