FBDC says business continues to boom

Despite the uncertain fate of the Metro Pacific group’s hold in Bonifacio Land Corp., business continues to boom as far as Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. (FBDC) – the joint venture vehicle for Bonifacio Global City – is concerned.

A top MPC official said that aside from separate deals forged by FBDC with the JG Summit and SM groups for their respective real estate projects in the Bonifacio Global City, another group is in negotiations for the establishment of a commercial complex and hotel structure.

"We expect to close the deal within 30 to 40 days," the source said, adding that the project will be in the higher-end category that has characterized most of the developments inside the city.

FBDC is a 55-45 joint venture between BLC and the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) in the ongoing transformation of a 150-hectare area in the former military base into a showcase of the most technologically advanced urban redevelopment project in Southeast Asia.

BLC, in turn, is nearly two-thirds controlled by the MPC group. Although MPC had indicated its willingness to sell off its stake in BLC in its continuing efforts to restructure over P12 billion in debts, MPC’s parent company First Pacific Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong has jumped ahead with its own binding agreement with the Gokongwei group to secure 50.4 percent of BLC and 24.47 percent of PLDT.

Just over a month ago, Robinsons Land Corp., the property unit of the Gokongweis’ JG Summit Holdings, clinched an agreement with FBDC for the development of a mixed-use retail, residential and hotel complex in a six-hectare lot in the Bonifacio Global City.

The project will revolve around the development of a mixed-use complex of approximately 500,000 square-meter space in a prime lot within the so-called Expanded Big Delta area.

The SM group, meanwhile, will also be bringing in their mall expertise although not in the mold of the traditional SM mall chain but a similarly higher-end version like The Podium in Ortigas Center, SM’s joint venture project with the Keppel group.

While FBDC’s revenue stream has suffered from weak demand and the low bid of Ayala Land (from an earlier bid for a 19-hectare lot) and lower valuation of the Gokongwei group in the PLDT-BLC deal, an active retail leasing market has kept FBDC’s finances at bay.

With lot sales and leases expected to be depressed to only P1.5 billion this year, from P2 billion last year and P2.5 billion in 2000, FBDC will use the additional capital to finance the vertical development of the Big Delta – a landmark portion hosting the commercial and entertainment complex, office and residential condominium buildings – as well as other growing areas in the property such as the e-Square IT Park ecozones, the iVillage residential community and the retail and service hub of the e-Square Park, Bonifacio Stopover.

The Bonifacio Stopover, in particular, has been bustling with activity as more locators set up shop at the area, located at the Kalayaan flyover entrance to accommodate more establishments, with already 70 percent of the leasable space taken.