City hopes to close deal with Filinvest

The city government hopes to close a deal with a major land developer in less than a month for the sale of a portion of the South Road Properties.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña said that verbally, the city has closed the deal with Filinvest Land, Inc. but everything has to go through the process like public bidding.

“Sa laway we have closed, but we’re trying to flesh the details,” the mayor said during his press conference yesterday.

But he said that he could not disclose yet which part of the SRP and what kind of business Filinvest will put up there.

“These will all to be disclosed in proper time because this is going to go through public bidding,” he said adding that he does not want to disclose more details because the negotiations have reached very critical stage and he might send a wrong signal.

“In the meantime, I don’t want to get into too many details because I’ve gotten into trouble with that already in the past,” he said.

Osmeña, however, explained he had come to basic discussion with Filinvest verbally that the portion that is being negotiated has to be bid out so the investor has to prepare the documents.

There were reports earlier that Filinvest, one of the major land developers in the country, plans to build a commercial complex in a portion of the SRP.

The city is also negotiating with other big companies like SM Prime Holdings and Ayala Land which proposed to put up mixed use projects at the 295-hectare facility.

The price being discussed ranges from P10,000 to P15,000 per square meter.

The city has so far earned P25 million from the project, which represents Bigfoot Global Solutions Inc.’s 25-year lease payment for a two-hectare lot for its expansion studio. The firm is constructing a facility for its film academy.

But Osmeña admitted yesterday that since he had pursued talks with Filinvest, the city also stopped negotiating with these two other potential investors.  — Wenna A. Berondo/MEEV