Luzon-based developer penetrates Cebu market

Luzon-based residential developer Landco Pacific Corporation is making its aggressive entry to the Southern Philippine market, through the introduction of its largest project in Cebu, a P5 billion integrated residential facility.

Landco Pacific, which developed the several residential resorts in Luzon, such as Punta Fuego in Batangas, is partnering with the Villalon family, a landed and prominent Cebuano clan.

The P5 billion residential resort is located in the huge 210-hectare prime hillside estates which covers several barangays in Cebu City Labangon, Sapang Daku, Guadalupe, and Buhisan.

The development, which will build a complete line of real estate products, such as chic homes, townhouses, condominiums, commercial/lifestyle facility is targeted to complete in the next five to 10 years, said Alfred Xerez Burgos Jr., Landco Pacific Corporation president and chief executive officer (CEO).

However, he emphasized though that the target time-frame of the entire development will largely depend on the market take up.

A joint venture project with Villalon's Genvi Development Corporation, the project is set to be officially launched in the first quarter of next year.

"This is one of Landco's major project for 2007. It will be the largest and most ambitious mixed-used residential development in the region and we are proud to be doing it in Cebu," said Francis V. Ceballos, Landco's executive vice president and chief operations officer (COO).

He said the project, will signal Landco's aggressive entry in the Southern Philippine market, as it is constantly looking for good opportunities to invest in residential resort projects in other areas in Visayas and Mindanao, such as Davao, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, among others.

Although, Landco had already established its presence in Cebu, through a joint residential project with Sta. Lucia, Ceballos said this new project will be its flagship in the VisMin area.

Composed of eight contiguous hills with a ridge spanning over three kilometers, the development boasts of the best views of the City, with elevation of up to 500 meters above sea-level.

"Unlike other developments in the Philippines that tried to copy foreign locations, this development is different," said Augusto Villalon, chairman of Genvi Development.

Villalon, a well-known architect said this project takes traditions, particularly Cebuano traditions, into the 21st century.

"It is a development proud to be Cebuano. It has pride of place. The design motif is Modern Filipino with specific references to traditional Cebuano architecture," Villalon said.