BCDA seeks bids for SCTEX service areas

MANILA, Philippines - The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is seeking bids from interested firms for the lease and development of two two-hectare lots along the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) into service areas.

“We are looking for partners to develop the lots into service areas for the benefit of the motorists plying the SCTEx,” BCDA president and chief executive officer Arnel Paciano Casanova said in a statement yesterday.

The lots called Concepcion Service Area and Macangcung Service Area are both located at Brgy. Santiago in Concepcion, Tarlac, with the former in the south bound direction of the Clark-Tarlac segment and the latter in the north bound side of the same segment.

The prescribed facilities and amenities of a service area would include a gas station, restrooms, parking slots, emergency First Aid station, potable water and lighting system, emergency vehicle repair shop and convenience stores.

Casanova said firms could bid for both lots or just one.

The properties, he said, would be leased for 25 years and renewable for another 25 years, upon agreement between the BCDA and the winning bidder.

BCDA Asset Disposition Program Committee chair Nena Radoc said the firm has set the minimum acceptable starting annual lease for each of the two-hectare properties at P2.240 million.

As the two properties are intended to be developed into service areas, there will be a one year grace period given to the winning firms for the construction works and the minimum lease would only apply on the second year, subject to an annual escalation of five percent.

The winning bidder, however, should pay BCDA the fixed lease for the three years covering years two to four upon contract signing.

“Starting on the fifth year of lease, the lease amount shall be the higher of the fixed lease, as adjusted based on five percent escalation rate per annum, or share in the revenues of the lessee from its operations and sub-lessees’ revenues, equivalent to 2.5 percent of net sales plus 0.15 percent share of net sales of petroleum products and lubricants,” Radoc said in the BCDA’s bid notice.

Interested firms may now purchase the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the bidding of the properties at a non-refundable fee of P50,000 until August 19 at the BCDA Corporate Center in Bonifacio Global City.

The TOR may likewise be viewed in the BCDA’s website, www.bcda.gov.ph.

The pre-bid conference for the two properties is scheduled on August 20 at the BCDA Conference Center.

The 93.77-kilometer SCTEx is being operated and managed by the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) through a business and operating agreement signed with the BCDA in July 2011.

Under the agreement, MNTC would be responsible for the operation and management of SCTEx for 33 years.

The SCTEx was constructed at a total cost of P34.907 billion, with 78 percent of the funding coming from a loan extended by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and 22 percent accounted for by the BCDA.