MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC), the property development arm of Gokongwei-owned JG Summit Holdings Inc., is intensifying its presence nationwide with plans to develop a new mall in Cebu and another in New Manila, Quezon City, slated for opening in 2012.
For this year, RLC is building a mall in Calasiao, its first in Pangasinan, and in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. These are expected to be operational in 2011.
The Calasiao mall will rise on a 5.8-hectare lot with a gross floor area of 31,900 square meters and a gross leasable space of 23,000 square meters, bringing the RLC Group’s total malls to 30 across the country with a total floor area of 1.5 million square meters.
“We hope to open our doors to the warm people of Pangasinan soon,” said RLC president Frederick Go adding that “Robinsons Calasiao reflects Robinsons Land’s commitment to expand its mall chain in the region.”
RLC now has two malls in Pampanga and one each in the provinces of Tarlac, Ilocos Norte, Bulacan and Cabanatuan. The company also has several horizontal developments in Pampanga.
Go said RLC chose Calasiao for its first mall in Pangasinan because the first-class municipality is strategically located between Dagupan City and San Carlos City.
Meanwhile, the planned mall in Cebu will be called Maxilom while the New Manila commercial center will be named Magnolia.
RLC has already opened three malls in Ilocos Norte, Dumaguete and Cebu.
RLC has earmarked up to P9 billion this year to build new shopping malls, residential buildings and units, office buildings and hotels.
The company is also mulling the possibility of introducing real estate investment trusts (REITs) to raise around $300 million to fund future projects and boost liquidity.
REITS have been widely adopted in the United States, Australia and more recently Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and RLC wants to take advantage of the significant tax benefits of listing REITs.
REITs are listed stock corporations that will provide small and large investors with options to participate directly in the ownership, financing and management of large-scale real-estate projects at affordable rates of investment.