True resort living

Saturday, 02 October 2010 17:24 Vladimir Bunoan

While many property developers promise resort-like living to buyers—mostly for condominium projects in Metro Manila—with amenities such as swimming pools and landscaped gardens, Roxaco Land Corp. is posed to deliver the real thing.

The property development arm of Roxas and Co. Inc., Roxaco Land recently broke ground on its latest project: Anya Resort & Residences, a 5.7-hectare development in Tagaytay, which integrates a residential subdivision and a boutique resort.

“It’s like living in a resort complex,” says Santiago R. Elizalde, Roxaco Land’s senior vice president. “The resort’s facilities will be the amenities of the residents.”

Leisure-estate development isn’t new to Roxaco Land, which is one of the partners in Peninsula de Punta Fuego and Terrazas de Punta Fuego in Nasugbu, Batangas. The Roxas family, best known for its sugar business with Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc. and Central Azucarera de la Carlota Inc., was the original landowner of Peninsula de Punta Fuego, a high-end second-home residential project developed in partnership with Landco Pacific Corp.

But with Anya, Roxaco Land is going at it solo. “We’re translating that experience [in Punta Fuego] in Anya, which is exclusively a Roxaco Land project,” Elizalde says.

For instance, Elizalde noted that homeowners at Punta Fuego often have to hire a caretaker family to watch over the maintenance of their homes while they are away. At Anya, this won’t be a problem, since the resort can offer housekeeping, gardening and maintenance services.
Moreover, residents can also enjoy private dining options and catering, as well as home spa services, should they want to be pampered.

Roxaco Land is also one of the principals behind Fuego Hotels, a hotel management company with managed properties in top resort destinations, including Pearl Farm in Davao and 7 Stones in Boracay. Fuego Hotels will also manage the Anya resort, which consists of several pavilions, which includes a spa, a signature restaurant and a coffee shop, with the destination resort pool as the focal point. Accommodations include suites, as well as villas, which Elizalde says will not be more than 50, in keeping with the boutique quality of the development and to ensure the privacy of the homeowners.

Peaceful and calm

With only 57 open lots, with an average size of 450 sq m, Anya promises to be an exclusive enclave for those seeking a more quiet environment. Unlike most of the new property developments in Tagaytay, it does not have a ridge view as it is located in the interior portion of the mountain city, near the seminaries.

Which is just appropriate as the word anya in Sanskrit means something other than the ordinary. Elizalde describes the location as “peaceful and calm.…The location adds to the general ambiance of the place.”

With a natural rolling terrain, the property used to be a pineapple plantation years ago. It was also once a tropical garden, with numerous trees and bamboo. “We’re trying to maintain as much of the garden as possible,” Elizalde says.

To ensure that the resort feel is maintained, Anya will sport an Asian-tropical architecture, which seeks to “unify the entire development as it creates a distinct sense of place that seamlessly integrates the indoors with the outdoors and opens to the favorable climate and terrain of Tagaytay.”

In fact, Elizalde says there will be no perimeter walls between the lots, with the divisions achieved through creative landscaping.

Lot owners will also have only three tropical Asian-inspired signature home designs to choose from—bungalow, villa or two-story—so every home follows the general architecture of the entire development. Elizalde says owners must consult with Anya’s architects to discuss issues such as interior partitions to address the individual needs of the lot buyers. “But we encourage them to stick to the exteriors,” he says.

The focal point of the residential area will be a clubhouse—exclusively for the use of homeowners—which also serves as the gateway to the facilities of the resort.

Since the groundbreaking rites in July, a third of the lots have already been sold, according to Giovanni Montini Nilo, assistant vice president for operations at Roxaco Land. “We are already starting horizontal development of the residential phase,” Nilo says, adding that this will take around a year to finish. “The resort will come in staggered phases. The last [to be developed] will be the suites.”

Asked if Anya will pose as a competition for Punta Fuego, Elizalde says the Nasugbu project has long been sold out. In fact, he points out that some of the buyers at Punta Fuego also have homes in Tagaytay. “So we’re offering them a mountain and a beach resort option,” he says. “It’s basically the same market.”

New model

Roxaco Land has been around since 1988. While it is best known for Punta Fuego, it has been active in property development, but mostly in Batangas, where Roxaco has become an established name.

It is behind several residential developments, including Palm Estates, a self-contained community in Nasugbu consisting of residential open-lot subdivisions, a school and commercial areas; The Orchards, a 6-hectare residential open-lot subdivision in Balayan, Batangas; Goodwood Homes, a 2-hectare exclusive, low-density duplex community in Imus, Cavite; Woodstock Homes, a mass housing project in Nasugbu, which is comprised of 386 housing units and 100 open lots; and its first venture, Landing Subdivision, a 23-hectare residential open-lot subdivision in Nasugbu.

But with Anya, Roxaco Land is looking at a new development model.

“Our aim is to create a Filipino resort brand. We can roll this out to other properties in the country,” says Elizalde, adding that Roxaco Land is looking at the top tourist destinations, such as Palawan, Boracay and Bohol. “Baguio also seems to be moving up the tourism ladder as a possible destination.”

“There are a lot of smaller properties that are being overlooked by the big developers. That’s a niche we can develop,” he says.