Robinsons Land offers more space for BPO firms

To take advantage of the continued rise in the business process outsourcing (BPO) business, Gokongwei-owned property firm Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) will make available an additional 40,000 square meters of office space for BPO firms in four key locations in and outside Metro Manila.

The new locations include Paco in Manila, Parañaque, Cebu and Davao.

Each location will have as much as 6,000 to 10,000 square meters of office space, RLC said in a statement.

The move is in line with efforts to maintain its hold as the largest landlord for call centers and BPO firms in the country.

RLC currently has five office buildings catering to BPO facilities: Galeria Corporate Center in Quezon City, Robinsons Summit Center in Makati City, Robinsons Equitable Tower in Pasig City, and Robinsons Cybergate Centers I and II in Mandaluyong City.

It also houses call centers in five of its 18 malls across the country.

"We are able to provide the facility call centers want in five of our shopping centers – Robinsons Place Novaliches in Quezon City, Robinsons Place Cainta, Robinsons Metro Bacolod, Robinsons Place Pioneer and soon in Robinsons Place Lipa in Batangas," said Cornelio S. Mapa Jr., general manager for RLC’s commercial centers division.

Mapa said the presence of these call centers and BPO offices compliments the synergy that Robinsons shopping malls provide.

Good English-language skills and an affinity with Western culture have made the Philippines a growing competitor to India and China in attracting investment in call centers, business processing, medical transcription and other jobs that require skills with desktop computers.

The Philippines hopes to capture about five percent of BPO services globally by 2010, amounting to as much as $12 billion. But there are concerns over the industry’s ultimate competitiveness. Many critics have warned that the English proficiency of Filipino graduates has been going down for years. RLC is the real-estate arm of Gokongwei-controlled JG Summit Holdings Inc., one of the country’s largest conglomerates with diverse interest in branded consumers foods, agro-industrial and commodity food products, textile, telecommunications, petrochemicals, air transportation and financial services. It is engaged in developing and operating shopping malls and hotels and in office and residential housing development.

To build up for the future, RLC acquired strategic real estate last year and continues to be on the lookout for good location properties. It reportedly bought prime properties in Ortigas and two prime lots in Topaz Street across the Asian Development Bank totaling 2,445 square meters. This is the site where RLC will build its 45-story East of Galleria residential condominium slated for turnover in June 2010.

Early this year, RLC won the bidding for the Manila Gas property in Paco, Manila for P573 million. The 39,995-square meter property, which was owned by National Development Co., will be converted into a lifestyle mall and residential condominium building.