Property developer SM Prime Holdings Inc. on Friday said more medium-rise buildings designed for office and the business-process outsourcing (BPO) sector will rise at its Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City, as the company hastens the development of the projects as a result of increasing demand.
David Rafael, senior vice president of the company’s commercial property group, said SM Prime is preparing to develop at least three more buildings, under the brand E-comCenter, in the complex in the next five years.
The proposed project will have an average gross floor area of 110,000 square meters, equivalent to more or less 15 stories. “We have accelerated the development of buildings because the demand from the BPO industry is very strong,” Rafael said at the groundbreaking of the ThreeE-com building. At the moment, the company has two operational E-coms within the 67-hectare complex, but the company expects to lease out fully the near-complete FiveE-com by the end of the year. ThreeE-com will be completed by 2017.
Rafael said the company is working the ThreeE-com to be SM Prime’s first LEED-certified building. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a standard used for the construction and maintenance of so-called green buildings.
If the developer has the facility LEED-certified, the project can command a higher price and generate P3.2 billion in rental income per year, compared with only P3 billion for FiveE-com, P2.5 billion for TwoE-com and P1.8 billion for OneE-com.
Meanwhile, FourE-com, which still has to start construction, is set for completion by 2019, even as Six E-com is still under the drawing board.
Rafael said more E-com buildings will rise in the complex, after attracting many companies, such as those from the shipping and logistics sector, to set up offices in the area, aside from the BPOs.
At the moment, the offices of the billion-dollar integrated casino operators at the Entertainment City, such as Solaire and City of Dreams Manila, have set up their offices at the E-com complex.
Rafael said these will be eventually replaced by other companies when their respective casinos start to operate. “When you look at other developments here in the Philippines, you can’t see a lot of large complex of office buildings like this,” Rafael said.