by Yves De-Luis
In 2009, Bridgebury Realty Corp, an affiliate of the Zuellig Group, announced that it will be investing 7 billion Peso for the construction of the Zuellig Building.
The Zuellig Building, to be completed by Q1 2012, is located in the Makati Central Business District, at Makati Avenue corner Paseo de Roxas, on a lot area of 8,285 square meters. The 33 storey structure is a premium, commercial, single-owner office building, with 55,000 square meters up for lease to multi-tenants as well as lease of PEZA office space.
Interestingly, the Zuellig Building will be the first ever Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) pre-certified Gold building in the Philippines. LEED is an “… internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built, using strategies aimed at improving performance across energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts…” The LEED certification is meaningful given the increasing awareness and support to “green” efforts and saving the planet. From a business standpoint, the building promises operational savings on utilities (up to 40%) for tenants locating to the Zuellig Building.
Following the global financial crisis of 2008, the Metro Manila office real estate market is starting to stabilize and is now slowly recovering. Demand for Prime and Grade A office space is expected to pick up in the near term, coming from the positive business sentiment towards the new Aquino administration. According to Michael McCullough, Director of Manila real estate brokerage firm KMC MAG Group, “We have observed an increasing demand in premium office space in Makati, starting late 2010 until now. Therefore, we think the Zuellig Building has been perfectly timed to enter the commercial real estate market in Makati and the Philippines.” Upon completion in 2012, the Zuellig Building will be the only new Prime building in the Makati Central Business District. For perspective, by 2012, the other Prime buildings will be significantly older: Ayala Tower One would be 16 years, Philam Life Tower and the Enterprise Center would be 13 years, and RCBC Plaza would be 11 .years. Given that a high-rise would take about three years to complete, no other new Prime buildings are expected by 2012
