ALI, STI team up for QC dev’t

MANILA, Philippines - Property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and Tanco-led education firm STI Education Systems Holdings Inc. are teaming up to develop an integrated community development in Quezon City that will feature a school, a mall and a residential area.

STI chairman Eusebio H. Tanco said the two firms are investing up to P3 billion for the project which will be developed in a 2.1-hectare property and scheduled to break ground in a couple of months.

“We are trying to do a community type of development wherein you have a school, a residential development and a mall. We’re experimenting and trying to explore new ideas,” Tanco said.

Tanco said STI would spend about P500 to P800 million for the school component of the project while the rest would be shouldered by ALI.

“We will spend for the school, they will spend for the mall and the residential building,” he said.

Of the project’s total land area, Tanco said around 1,000 square meters are being allotted for residential space, while 8,000 square meters are being set aside for the mall and another 2,000 to 3,000 square meters for the school.

“It’s an experiment where you have a school, a small mall and residential on the back. It’s a joint idea between us and ALI and they’re pretty good in property development,” he said.

Monico V. Jacob, STI president and chief executive officer, said the property to date houses the Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS), the basic education division of Philippine Women’s University (PWU).

“Just this quarter we have entered into a agreement with ALI and Amaia, which is a subsidiary of ALI, for the development of a 2.1-hectare property in Quezon City owned by Unlad resources and by BPI Trust,” Jacob said.

“We are constructing by March of 2015 a new nine-storey building to house JASMs in Quezon City as well some college courses in the same building. This new edifice will be right beside an Ayala district mall to be known as the JASMS district mall. At the back of this edifice of the building that we are constructing for the school will be a twin tower to be built by Amaia,” he added.

Aside from its joint venture project with ALI, the listed education firm said it is also continuously on the lookout for potential acquisitions of other schools across the country.

STI in October last year acquired 99 percent equity in West Negros University (WNU), a leading university in Bacolod. 

“Next year we have a war chest to acquire more schools. What we are looking for are mostly universities. We have sufficient internally generated funds for that,” Tanco said.

STI said i-Academy and PWU are currently in the midst of campus relocation and renovation, respectively, to better serve the needs of its students.