A PROPERTY the Capitol owns in Barangay Apas used to hold Cebu City’s prison. In a few years, it will host enough space for some 15,000 to 20,000 jobs, a developer said.
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and officials of Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) broke ground yesterday for a P6-billion project on 1.2 hectares that belong to the Province.
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“We are bullish about Cebu and its potential,” said FLI President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Yap.
Under the joint venture, FLI will build a four-tower business process outsourcing (BPO) complex on the property, said Yap.
“He is Joseph the dreamer, but with this great development that will provide thousands of jobs, he is Joseph the doer as well,” the governor said in her speech.
The Capitol will earn through rentals and revenue shares. It will retain ownership of the 1.2 hectares, plus all buildings, since the project is being implemented as a build-transfer-and-operate (BTO) venture.
This would reportedly mean at least P115 million a year, in shares of FLI’s earnings alone.
“FLI will operate and manage the facility (BPO towers) for a period of 25 years, with a renewal option for another 25 years,” the memorandum of agreement stated.
Yap said this will be its first BPO complex outside Metro Manila, and that the first of the four towers will be completed in May next year. All four towers will be done in five years.
It was earlier reported that the first tower will cost almost P1.8 billion and is expected to generate about 2,000 BPO jobs.
“History (in Cebu) continues to be made, especially in the field of public-private partnership,” said the governor.
Boom
The president of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Filomeno Lim, also witnessed the groundbreaking and welcomed the development.
“Daghan tao ma-employ dinhi, mogasto man jud na sila (employees) sa ilang sweldo, ang economy sa Cebu motubo (This will employ thousands, whose spending will also fuel Cebu’s economy),” said Lim. The chamber he heads has more than 500 members in retail, wholesale, and food and trading businesses.
It will also attract other investors, he added.
He expressed hope that government planners will also anticipate and prepare for challenges that come with urban development, like a possible rise in squatting and crime.
The governor, for her part, said the Province owes this project to the initiative of her father, the former three-term governor and now Rep. Pablo Garcia (Cebu Province, 2nd district).
During his administration (1995-2004), the Province had donated a hectare in Barangay Kalunasan to the city for the transfer of the city jail, formerly known as the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center. That transfer gave the Apas property a new lease on life, this time as a prime commercial location.
Flexibility
“This gave me the chance and flexibility to optimize Capitol’s earnings through this lot,” the governor said.
“In Cebu, we saw the beginning of a public-private partnership 22 years ago,” the former governor said. He referred to a partnership between the Ayala Group and Cebu Province that led to the Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corp.
National government officials at that time had questioned the partnership, Congressman Garcia recalled, but they yielded as there was no law that prohibited the practice.
Now, two decades later, the national leadership is encouraging PPPs, he pointed out.
Capitol is also pursuing at least two other PPP ventures: the P702-million Cebu Bulk Water Supply Project with the Manila Water Consortium and the Ciudad commercial complex with Fifth Avenue Development Corp.
It is reportedly looking for investors to develop part of the military camp in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City into an area similar to The Fort, a former Armed Forces camp in Taguig, Metro Manila.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on May 27, 2012.
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