Bye-bye Broadway?

Broadway Centrum along Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City has become a well-known landmark due to popular noontime variety show Eat Bulaga! whose studio is located at the East Side Theater within the complex. As a matter of fact, local excursionists and balikbayans alike include a studio visit in their itinerary hoping they would be picked as participants in the show’s numerous game segments. However, Spy Bits received information that the 16,545-square meter Broadway Centrum property is being sold for P930 million with the owner wishing for its very speedy disposition. Potential buyers will have to fork out P100 million as earnest money.

Income from the property mostly comes from rentals said to be within the vicinity of P68-72 million per year, although we were told that there has not been any new major tenant in the past several years. According to information we received, the lease contract for tenants will end in less than three years except for Banco de Oro whose agreement still has three more years to go and SaveMore (the “thrift” supermarket under the SM umbrella) which has 10 years. The contract with SaveMore can be pre-terminated though, with the tenant willing to move out pronto as long as it retains an option to be the supermarket in the redevelopment.

Perhaps SM Development Corp. will just buy the property and turn it into a residential condo. After all, Broadway Centrum is in a prime location and several residential condos already dot the New Manila/Aurora Boulevard area. There’s the Magnolia Residences (where the Magnolia House used to stand) by Robinsons Land and the Princeton Residences by SMDC itself. Who knows, we might even see the “Broadway Residences” rising up in the near future.

‘House haunting’ in Hong Kong

Speaking of property, the scandal involving the Kwok brothers, Raymond and Thomas (of Sun Hung Kai Properties over allegations of corruption and bribery) along with former HK administration chief secretary Rafael Hui has unleashed a barrage of public anger over suspicions that government has been pampering real estate developers, sending property rates skyrocketing over the years. Just before the recent election of Leung Chun-ying (also known as CY) as Hong Kong’s chief executive, resentment has been boiling against outgoing chief Donald Tsang who admitted accepting “favors” from tycoons, including those involved in the real estate sector, feeding perceptions that the cozy relations between government and big business has been detrimental to HK’s public housing program.

Almost 50 percent of the seven million HK population lives in subsidized public residences, but in the last decade, government allocation for public housing has diminished by 57 percent. In contrast, private developments have grown, with property and rental rates increasing by almost 70 percent. In fact, real estate prices in HK is one of the most expensive in the world – estimated at $4,406 per square foot – topped only by Monaco (at an average of $5,408 per sq. ft.), Cap Ferrat in France ($4,800/sq. ft.) and London (at $4,535 per sq. ft.) according to London-based real estate firm Knight Frank. 

But when it comes to office space, Hong Kong is the undisputed leader, with rental rates averaging at $135 per square foot for 2012, dislodging erstwhile leader London (West End area). Those who want a bargain though can go “house haunting” for the “hongza” – a Cantonese term meaning “haunted house” – being put up for sale, since these private residences are believed to be inhabited by “ghosts” of former occupants who died of accidents, suicides, murders and other fatal incidents. Not surprisingly, most of the buyers for these “hongza” are expats who do not share in the superstitious belief of the Chinese.

Smallest US town auctioned off

The worldwide interest generated by the online auction of the town of Buford in Wyoming surprised not only the owner, but also the Oklahoma outfit that handled the auction for the speed with which the property was disposed – with an unnamed Vietnamese successfully outbidding the others at $900,000 after 11 minutes. Bidders from 46 countries vied for ownership of the four-hectare property that has a convenience store, a gas station, and a hamlet (located between Cheyenne and Laramie) whose population has a grand total of one.

The town, which was named after US Civil War General John Buford, used to be a military outpost in the 1860s while the transcontinental railroad was being built, but the population started dwindling when the army outpost was transferred to Laramie and the county capital moved to Cheyenne. Prior to the sale, the only remaining residents were a couple from New York who transferred to Buford in 1980. Six years after the wife died in 1986, the husband bought the town for an undisclosed amount but decided to sell it to be closer to his son in Colorado.

Another US town on the block is Pray, Montana (population: 8), a five-acre area located at Paradise Valley near Yellowstone National Park, with a selling price of $1.4 million.

Spy tidbits

– Our condolences to the family of our friend, broadcast journalist Angelo Castro Jr., who succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 67 last Thursday. My deepest sympathies to Angelo’s wife June Keithley and their son Diego.

– We also extend our condolences to the family of former PCGG commissioner and Manila Overseas Press Club member Ric Abcede who died of cardiac arrest. Ric has reportedly been suffering from cancer in the past three years.

– Broadcast journalists are also mourning the passing away of Mike Wallace, the legendary CBS news reporter who helped make “60 Minutes” a top TV news program. He was 93.

***

Email: [email protected]