Filinvest Land Inc. plans to infuse three office buildings in Cebu into its real estate investment trust unit Filinvest REIT Corp., a top executive said over the weekend.
FILRT president and chief executive Maricel Brion-Lirio said in a forum FLI would infuse Cebu Towers 2, 3 and 4 into FILRT’s portfolio in the future, or once they become accretive to the REIT company.
“The BPO sector remains to be the top demand driver for office space in the country. Thus, we are aggressively expanding our footprint and will continue to build sustainable premium BPO-ready developments in Cebu,” she said.
Cebu Tower 2 is now 73-percent occupied by top global BPO locators, while Cebu Towers 3 and 4 are under construction and scheduled for completion by 2023.
Cebu Towers 3 and 4 have a combined gross leasable area of 38,718 square meters of office space and 5,471 sq. m. of retail space.
“We are also in talks with some major global BPO players for an early pre-leasing of these buildings,” Brion-Lirio said.
FILRT’s portfolio consists of 17 Grade A office buildings with 300,000 sq. m. of GLA, with only one property (Cebu Tower 1) located in Cebu.
Cebu Tower 1 is a 13-story office building located near Cebu IT Park in Lahug City, Cebu, with close to 20,000 sq. m. of office space and 675 sq. m. of retail space. It is 100-percent leased by BPO companies.
Brion-Lirio said Cebu Towers 1 and 2 generated around 29,000 new jobs, while the upcoming Towers 3 and 4 are expected to create another 21,000 new jobs from the office spaces and 1,000 jobs from the retail spaces.
“Cebu remains to be a preferred location of multinational and BPO companies primarily because of the generous benefits it offers. The workforce is first-rate. Access to the labor market of the nearby regions is easy,” she said.