Shipping, logistics firms find home at SM Land's E-com business hub

MANILA, Philippines - The Port of Manila is the country’s foremost gateway to international trade. Every year, millions of containerized and bulk cargoes are handled at the port’s South Harbor area making the Manila district the center of international shipping, logistics and freight industry in the country.

Container yards, warehouses, the Bureau of Customs, the Philippine Ports Authority, the Philippine Coast Guard and offices of shipping lines, cargo handlers, customs brokers, haulers, freight forwarders, and crewing agencies located there keep the economy alive by facilitating international trade, raising customs duties and taxes for the government, and employing tens of thousands of people.

A drawback of the South Harbor is its congested environs. Trailer trucks and public utility vehicles share narrow streets causing chaotic traffic jams that hamper business operations and office staff movement. Slum dwellers, food stalls and surplus appliance vendors are unsightly fixtures in sidewalks and streets making offices unpleasant to visit. There is also scarce space for new office buildings needed for business expansion.

The poor working environment has prompted some of its long-time tenants to relocate to alternative sites. One such area that is a growing center of shipping and maritime-related businesses is SM Land’s E-com business hub at the Mall of Asia Complex (MOAC) in Pasay City. OneE-comCenter, the first of four office buildings to be completed at the MOAC, is already the home of Maersk Group of Companies, APL Philippines, MOF Hanjin and OSTE Crewing. The recently completed second building, TwoE-comCenter, hosts the offices of Anscor Swire Ship Management, CMA CGM, OOCL Philippines, Klaveness and Ben Line Agencies.

“These companies traditionally located in the old port area of Manila have had to contend with less than ideal conditions for conducting business in exchange for proximity to the bay area,” says David L. Rafael, senior vice president of SM Land’s Commercial Properties Group (CPG). “We at SM Land CPG had recognized this unfulfilled niche and deliberately leveraged the prime bayside location of MOAC to offer an exciting, new alternative business home for these local and multinational logistics and maritime firms.”

The E-com buildings’ value-for-money office solutions — the functionality and prestige of a CBD address at costs not usually associated with such — makes MOAC attractive to BPO and maritime companies. The address in a prime location near Manila Bay gives shipping, freight and logistics firms a sense of prestige, permanence and professionalism similar to premium office buildings in Makati and Ortigas. Executive and administrative offices are able to welcome guests more comfortably, conduct business more professionally and promote employee productivity under a less-stressful working environment.

The SM mall, the SMX Convention Center, the bayside entertainment complex and other facilities provide added excitement.

The Anscor Swire offices at the ground floor of TwoE-comCenter were inaugurated last Feb. 3 attended by top officials of the ship management company, along with SM Land officials and guests. From left: Ed Pertierra; Capt. Angel Peñalosa, Anscor Swire general manager; April Misa, SM Land leasing manager; and David Rafael, SM Land senior vice president and head of Commercial Properties Group, the developer of TwoE-com.

“We help our tenants and locators grow their business by creating a truly attractive and pleasurable lifestyle environment for their employees,” says April Misa, leasing manager of CPG. “This lifestyle component also plays a very important role, specifically in the lives of maritime employees. For instance, seamen or shipping crew members would usually spend the day at the mall with their families and loved ones before departing for duty or reporting for work in their offices.”

MOAC enjoys utmost accessibility through established public transport routes complemented by a terminal for taxis, buses and jeepneys plying major routes in Metro Manila and neighboring cities. For maritime service firms, business transactions with the Port of Manila remain easy with Roxas Boulevard and Macapagal Boulevard linking the two areas.  

The entire complex is strictly secured and monitored by SM Land CPG. It is flood-free as it sits on reclaimed land, which is three meters above sea level, and has canal interceptors that efficiently and swiftly drain excess rainwater. Utilities, traffic management, and other features are extremely reliable.

When crewing agency Anscor Swire commissioned real estate consultant Colliers International to find a relocation site for the company, TwoE-comCenter was the top recommendation. Compared to other sites studied, Anscor Swire president Eduardo P. Pertierra says having an office at MOAC is cheaper than staying in the previous location. The place is also accessible to its seafarers and applicants alike and is near essential offices such as the POEA, OWWA, MARINA, DFA, training centers, etc. ?

“Our proximity to these government offices greatly reduces our processing time, thus ensuring our seafarers’ timely departure,” Pertierra says.

International shipping line APL Philippines moved its two business units, APL and APL Logistics, to OneE-ComCenter to bring employees closer together and promote efficiency and customer service excellence.

“This will help foster teamwork and collaboration, and has the potential to enhance business synergies between APL and APL Logistics,” explains the company’s managing director Edgar C. Milla.

Being conveniently located between Manila and Makati areas, close to airports and seaports, and close to major roads and expressways also allows APL Phils. to help customers better connect to their factories in the south, Milla adds. 

Relocating to the Mall of Asia Complex in 2008 not only improved Maersk Filipinas Inc.’s costs. As other business units of the Maersk Philippines Group are housed at OneE-ComCenter, including Maersk-Filipinas Crewing Inc. and Maersk Crew Management Services Philippines Inc., the company was able to further optimize its manpower and improve synergy among the business units.

“Traffic in the vicinity (of MOAC) is much tolerable than where we used to be located, which contributes a lot to the convenience and ease of access not only for our customers but for our staffs as well,” says Maersk Filipinas Administration Manager Lawrence De Leon Panginen. 

TwoE-comCenter is a 15-story, 102,000-square-meter twin tower designed with BPOs’ needs in mind. The building beside the OneE-ComCenter has redundant telecommunications system to ensure backup, supports all the current telco providers and provide 100 percent back-up power. Offices that occupy two or three floors have private staircase so employees need not go out of public hallways to access elevators in going to upper or lower floors.

TwoE-comCenter makes for a spectacular landmark inside MOAC as the twin towers interconnect at the top floors leaving a gaping huge rectangular window for a wonderful view of the sea and the sky of Manila Bay area. Its landscaped podium area on the fourth level called Prism Plaza is an open-air garden to be filled with fine dining restaurants. Accessible from the ground floor via a long staircase and two-way covered escalators, the plaza is a veritable promenade where employees and visitors alike can converge, with its numerous seating areas and nooks.

With the success of TwoE-com, groundbreaking for the next building ThreeE-comCenter is targeted by early 2012. The future FourE-comCenter completes the business zone in MOAC