SSS to build P8-B twin towers corporate headquaters in QC

The Social Security System (SSS) will build its P8-billion 33- storey twin towers corporate headquarters in Quezon City after getting the approval of the National Economic Development Authority-Investment Coordinating Committee (NEDA-ICC).

SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Corazon De la Paz said the project will be subjected to a "Swiss Challenge" process that will require the agency to get comparative proposals from interested property development firms and investors.

"SSS hopes to break ground by the end of the year after we have secured NEDA-ICC approval," De la Paz said, adding that the Quezon City Council has allowed the use of the property for commercial purposes.

Dubbed as the "SSS Corporate Center" the project will be a "mixed use development" that will include a shopping mall and residential condominiums.

The towers will be constructed under a build-operate-transfer scheme that would not require any cash outlay on the part of the SSS.

The Quezon City Council has reclassified the 4.45-hectare SSS property, located at the corner of EDSA and East Avenue, into a Special Economic Zone. The area was formerly classified as an "institutional zone," which specifies its use for government offices.

De la Paz said the Council has given SSS one year starting this month until May of next year to begin the project.

She said the project is expected to generate more than 15,000 jobs for Quezon City residents and more than P50 million in annual revenues for the City.

Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte endorsed the project because it fits the plan of the city government to transform the stretch of EDSA from East Avenue to North Avenue into a business and financial hub.