The Fort Bonifacio Global City: the FUTURE Financial Capital of the Philippines
Makati City is the current financial capital of the Philippines, but it may be soon overtaken by the Fort Bonifacio Global City, which is majority owned by none other that the Makati developer themselves: Ayala Land. Hence, many developments are sprouting up there like mushrooms, because of their trust in the Ayala name brand. They certainly did it before in Makati, which was a barren airstrip during the period. With their foremost expertise, they have transformed it into probably the most modern and attractive urban development in the Philippines.
Fort Bonifacio Philippines was once, as its name implies, a military fort. During the Ramos Administration from 1992 to 1996, President Fidel V. Ramos auctioned off this huge chunk of prime property to the biggest Philippine real estate developers out there. Because of its superior location being right next to Makati, in between two major highways (EDSA and C5), and near to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, developers bidded it up to huge prices per square meters. In the end, the Metro-Pacific group headed by Manny Pangilinan put up a whopping amount to beat Ayala Land in the auction.
In the years to come, Metro Pacific would start developing the roads, utilities, and the lots to offer them to investors, offering it to other residential, office, and commercial developers. They even built the famed Pacific Plaza Fort to start it off and gave land to the International School to provide education to the children of foreign investors. However, they were unable to sell significant amounts of their inventory and eventually ran out of funds for further maintenance and development. Thus, they sold 51% stake to a joint venture company by Ayala Land and Greenfield Development (owned by the Campos family), and they got a pretty good price for it considering the Fort Global City already had good roads, its own water works, underground electricity lines, and flattened out lots ready for the taking.
Because the big investors know the story of Ayala’s success with the Makati Central Business District, they put their trust into them and started buying into Fort Global City. This gave the Fort newfound life, as almost all commercial lots there are sold out. Hence, we are currently seeing so many buildings being put up there at the same time, which is clearly more activity than what we saw during Metro Pacific’s tenure. Among the new buidings which draw attention today are the Bonifacio High Street commercial strip, the Ayala Serendra condominium, St. Luke’s hospital Fort, Shangrila Plaza Fort, the Build To Own condominiums, The series of Net building offices by Rufino, and the new HSBC building.
Map of Fort Global City
bonifacio high street with Serendra in the background
And clearly, this is the reason why Ayala Land is the arguably the BEST developer the Philippine Real Estate Industry. We should also look at their upcoming city development in Sta Rosa Laguna called NUVALI, as well as an emerging competitor in Lucio Tan by developing Eton City in Cabuyao Laguna. More details at my previous blogpost about the Future Makati Investment Lots in Laguna at http://www.realestatephilippinesblog.com/investment-lots-future-makati-city-in-santa-rosa-laguna/
Tags: Bonifacio High Street, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio Philippines, Fort Global City, Pacific Plaza Fort