Anchor Land allots P3 billion for expansion this year

MANILA, Philippines - Anchor Land Holdings Inc., a premier developer of luxury condomi-niums in Manila, is working at full throttle to launch new projects and phases of existing ones that would require investments of P3 billion this year.

On the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders meeting yesterday, Anchor Land vice-chairman Steve Li said the company will begin in the third quarter the construction of Phase 2 of SoleMare Parksuites, two 18-story towers with a total of 815 units. The second phase, which will rise on a 1.3-hectare lot at the Aseana Business Park in Paranaque, is expected to cost around P2 billion, he said.

“We are very pleased with the strong take-up of the first phase of SoleMare, which has become our top selling project. That’s why we’re launching Phase 2,” he said. The first phase rolled out a total of 916 units.

Li said the company has already started the construction of Anchor Park Suites, a 56-story residential condominium expected to be one of the tallest buildings in the Chinatown district. The project, with a development cost of P3 billion, will offer a total of 330 two-to five-bedroom units with a floor area of between 95 square meters to 250 square meters. It is slated for completion in 2014.

Another project under construction is the 39-story Wharton ParkSuites, also in Chinatown.

Li said the company will also launch within the year Clairemont Hills, a combination of 15 storys of twin towers and eight single-detached units to rise on about 6,000 square meters of land in Alfonso Trece in San Juan City. This would mark the firm’s foray into luxury single-detached housing development.

In addition, Anchor Land will start the redevelopment of the historic Admiral Hotel on Roxas Boulevard into a boutique residential hotel called the Admiral Baysuites with a project cost of P4 billion.

To diversify its revenue stream, the company started leasing out stall spaces in its One Shopping Center in Pasay City, a development patterned after the warehouse shopping concept. By end-2009, all stalls in One Shopping Center have been leased to wholesalers.

One Shopping Center is set to open next month while Two Shopping Center will make available a total of 50,000 square meters of gross leasable space when completed in end-2011 or early 2012.

Li said he is optimistic 2010 will be another good year for the company, pointing out that Anchor Land has been posting a 50 percent spike in net earnings since it listed on the stock exchange in 2007. Last year, the company reported a net income of P372.82 million, up 57.76 percent from P236.31 million on the back of a 19.85 percent jump in revenues to P1.63 billion.

Li said Sybase Equity Investments Corp., a private company owned by retail tycoon Henry Sy, holds a 20 percent stake in Anchor Land.

He added the company is financially healthy, awash with proceeds from a recent bond issue amounting to P1 billion.