Eastwood City: Laying out the blueprint for Megaworld’s rise
By Charles E. Buban
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:10:00 06/27/2008
Filed Under: Real Estate, Construction & Property
MANILA, Philippines—Located at the southeastern corner of Quezon City, Libis was so much out of the way that if you’re not a resident or riding with a group of thrill-seeking street racers, you won’t be interested in going into the area.
“But no place is too far off or uninteresting for a visionary like Andrew Tan, chair and CEO of Megaworld Corp., who in 1998 applied for a special economic zone license with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) to transform a portion of Libis into something that was still unheard of in the country at the time,” recalled Kevin Tan, Megaworld Commercial Division head.
By 1999, the construction of the country’s first IT park, Eastwood City Cyberpark, was in full swing, ushering in the birth of the Philippines’ business processing and outsourcing sector.
“Today Eastwood City is not just home to the country’s largest BPO community. Close to 17 hectare land area, it is now a premier residential, business, commercial and entertainment city where one could live, work, play and learn,” described Kevin, who is the eldest son of the chair and CEO.
Most efficient
He added that such a concept provides the most efficient use of land and gives people the best value.
“By locating residences, workplaces and commercial centers in one setting, people may be able to live better, richer and safer lives. Everything is equally accessible,” he explained.
At the moment, Eastwood City is home to over 80 firms—comprising multinationals such as Siemens, Dell, IBM, Citibank and eTelecare—while employing more than 30,000 professionals.
Based on data from Peza, Eastwood City’s BPO firms registered $228.09 million (P10.14 billion) in export earnings last year, making it the country’s leading IT park.
Residential projects
But this is just part of what is emerging at Eastwood City. Megaworld has just finished a number of its residential projects there, including the Grand Eastwood Palazzo, Eastwood Lafayette, Eastwood Excelsior, One Orchard, Eastwood Legrand, Eastwood Park Hotel and Eastwood Parkview.
“We are expecting more than 24,000 residents to be living inside Eastwood City by 2010. Add the daily traffic of office workers as well as mall, restaurant and party goers, Eastwood City is indeed, a city within a city,” described Jericho Go, FVP of Megaworld’s Business Development and Leasing Division.
For this reason, Go said the development of the four-story Eastwood City Mall is vital.
“The Eastwood City Mall will be home to more than 250 upscale boutiques and specialty concept stores, which will complement Eastwood City Walk 1 and 2 as well as Eastwood Cybermall,” Go described.
Indeed, Eastwood City has become Megaworld’s proof of concept, laying out a blueprint for the company’s rise as a developer of megaprojects in Metro Manila that include Forbes Town Center in Bonifacio Global City, McKinley Hill in Fort Bonifacio and Newport City at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.
“Megaworld has set itself apart by challenging old conventions and introducing fresh ideas in the marketplace. While people would doubt us about our move in Libis a couple of years back, we were able to show them how capable we are in finishing what we have started and in realizing what a number of our developers out there are still conceptualizing,” Tan said.
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