Tutuban Center gets facelift from ALI-POPI partnership

MANILA, Philippines - Publicly-listed Prime Orion Philippines Inc. is expanding the iconic Tutuban Center in Divisoria which may include the construction of high rise buildings.

The expansion follows the purchase by Ayala Land Inc. of a 51.36 percent interest in POPI last August.  The acquisition was part of the ALI Group’s strategy to expand its leasing business.

In an interview after the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday, POPI chairperson Felipe Yap said Tutuban would entirely be changed into a station where the South and North lines meet and coordinate.

“It will be the center of Manila where everybody goes,” Yap said.

Tutuban Center will be the location of the North and South Railway transfer station project, which will also connect with the LRT-2 west station.

He said the group is still completing the masterplan for the project and would proceed with its implementation as soon as the technical details are threshed out with the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Philippine National Railways.

Asked whether there would be high rise development and new retail concepts, Yap said it would all depend on ALI.

“We know we will put the best we can do to enhance the value of the company and the shareholders, without violating the law,” he said.

If there are no regulatory requirements that will delay the project, proponents expect to start implementing the master plan development as soon as possible.

The popular Tutuban Center is a retail complex in the shopping district of Divisoria in Tondo, Manila, with gross leasable area of about 60,000 square meters, offering various concepts from wholesale and bargain stalls, to regular retail and food outlets.

POPI said its board has approved an increase in its authorized capital to P7.5 billion from P2.4 billion.  Also approved was an increase in the number of its directors from seven to  nine.

ALI posted a net income of P8.39 billion in the first six months of the year, 19 percent higher than the P7.05 billion recorded in 2014.