SM Prime to develop smaller comm’l bldgs

MANILA, Philippines - SM Prime Holdings Inc., the integrated property development arm of retail and banking conglomerate SM Group, is preparing to bolster the network of its smaller commercial buildings in the near term as demand for office space in Metro Manila continues to grow.

Dave Rafael, SM Prime senior vice president for the Commercial Properties Group, said the company is eyeing to expand the company’s Cyber building offering to seven over the next two to three years.

“We’re building three Cyber buildings in the next two to three years,” he said.

Rafael did not identify the sites for the planned expansion of its office property portfolio, but said the developments would be stand-alone buildings and not located near any of its existing malls.

The Cyber buildings, with a gross floor area ranging from 60,000 square meters to 80,000 square meters, are office buildings smaller than SM’s E-com Centers development at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Complex in Pasay City.

SM’s E-com Centers are mostly about twice the size of Cyber buildings. SM Prime has four existing Cyber buildings located in Makati, Quezon City and Baguio.

SM Makati Cyber One and SM Makati Cyber Two were completed in 2008, while SM Cyber Baguio and SM Cyber West opened in 2006 and 2014, respectively.

Rafael said SM Prime is also studying potential expansion outside Metro Manila or the next-wave cities given the large demand for office spaces, specially for business process outsourcing (BPO) in these areas.

Aside from its Cyber buildings development, SM Prime will also put up three more E-com Centers in MOA complex.

SM Prime is currently spending P3.2 billion for the development of a fourth commercial building under its E-com Centers brand.

The property firm has invested some P7.3 billion on three E-com buildings, two of which are already finished and operational while the other one is set to open by April next year.