Pleasantly pedestrian - Aug 20, 2005

Here is a News Article about Ayala’s Masterplan for Fort Bonifacio Global City
Pleasantly pedestrian
First posted 09:48pm (Mla time) Aug 20, 2005
By Linda Bolido
Inquirer News Service

TO MANY Filipinos, Ayala has become almost synonymous with class—in capital letters.

So why is Jim Ayala, the 43-year-old president of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), talking about “pedestrianizing” not just the Makati commercial center (MCC) but even the Bonifacio Global City at The Fort in Taguig, Metro Manila?
But then pedestrianizing for ALI is a far cry from slumming. What Ayala (despite his family name he is not related to ALI’s owners) is talking about is simply making it easier and more pleasant for people who live, work, and visit the two sites to go on walkabouts—whether for shopping, dining or entertainment.

The idea is not only some kind of public service. It actually makes good business sense, especially if you are trying to draw people who really do not have a compelling reason to go to the MCC or the Fort, like non-residents or non-employees.

“The nice thing is, since we did the bridgeways, you can go almost from the Makati Medical Center (MMC) all the way to the MRT (Metro Rail Transit) station on Edsa,” points out Miriam Katigbak, executive vice president and head, Commercial Centers Group. She adds the plan for the network of covered overpasses, underpasses and street-level pedestrian pathways has been with the company since 1990.

Big difference

Though people were really able to walk from the MRT station to MMC starting only last year, Ayala says, “It has really made a very big difference. Where before you have a lot of traffic on the ground floors (of malls), you now have a lot more traffic on the upper levels so all of our merchants had to adjust. It also eased our parking. (Parking demand) went down a lot because people now walk, which is good.”

So good that it has made the idea worth replicating elsewhere.

“We want to take that to a whole new level at Fort Bonifacio,” says Ayala, “because it will be a mix of uses (unlike Makati where things are separate-offices, commercial establishments, etc.). We want to make it a more integrated, mix-use, pedestrian-oriented place.”
He says the Fort is geared towards a mix market. “It is a large area, too big to be totally high end.”
He adds, “The problem when you have a setup where you only have business offices sa gabi patay…You want something that is alive all the time, that is very safe and very pedestrian-friendly.” What ALI plans for the Global City is a “retail promenade with landscaping.”

Not just buildings

Both Ayala and Katigbak stress that ALI always makes its plans as comprehensive as possible, anticipating every possible use and service and facilities that may be required. “There is so much more to real estate (development) than just putting up building,” Katigbak points out.

Ayala adds time frame should be at least 20 years since “we’re studying this… to make the project sustainable. We all exist in a broader community. We cannot ignore, in fact, we have an obligation to, use resources sustainably.”

If he sounds like an environmentalist, that is because Ayala is a member of the board of the World Wildlife Fund in the Philippines. He finds no conflict between his pro-environment sentiments and ALI’s goals, saying the company has always been environment conscious.

After the award-winning redevelopment of Greenbelt, ALI is now reviewing plans for Glorietta. “It’s a prime piece of property. We always try to make each (redevelopment) something to look forward to,” says Katigbak. The InterContinental Hotel, a major landmark in that part of Makati is definitely part of the redevelopment.

But ALI is not completely done with Greenbelt. Katigbak says some pretty serious redevelopment is being planned for Greenbelt 1 to make it seem bigger than it is now.

Ayala says, “Positioning-wise, it really provides services to office workers.” Katigbak points out it is closest to the Legazpi Village offices. “Lunch time maraming tumatawid (for) grocery, services, etc.” So she adds they will keep much of the services available but “we may change the side facing the park, and organize the second and third floors a
little bit more.”

The movie theaters may have to go as Greenbelt 3 already has several.

Family affair

Ayala says Glorietta, having everything for everyone, is geared toward the whole family while people go to Greenbelt to eat, celebrate, pamper themselves. The place that makes them feel good inside and out.

Even as ALI is busy with the development of the Global City and redevelopment of Glorietta, it is also getting ready for the 2007 opening of what is dubbed as “a super regional mall in northern Metro Manila” in the North Triangle in Quezon City, a joint venture with ALI owning 50 percent.

Ayala says it is going to be very large, 200,000 square meters, “Glorietta without the ‘afters.’”

Katigbak says this is their first entry to Quezon City and they studied the area very carefully. “We would like to give the market something that they have not seen before—and don’t have. So we actually would like to combine Glorietta and Greenbelt and provide Quezon City that kind of ambience.”

Greatest hits

Ayala says, “It will be a super regional mall addressing a number of different segments so it will be in a way a mixture of Ayala’s ‘greatest hits’… We have to organize the mall in a way that different segments have their areas because we are serving a number of different needs.” The challenge, he says, is to make everything cohesive.

Given the current political upheaval, is ALI being overly optimistic?

Ayala, who worked with a multi-national company and was based overseas for several years, shares the company’s faith in the country and its people. He says businesses can do well “if they do things right, if they understand the market. I don’t think the Philippines is so far gone… that the whole place is corrupt (but) the private sector has to show leadership.” It is a matter of knowing where to focus energy, identifying growth areas despite circumstances.

The company’s faith in the country seems well-placed. Newspapers report that in the second quarter of the year ending in June, ALI’s net profit rose by 4.4 percent—P640 million from P613 million for the same period last year. The increase was attributed primarily to sustained rise in mall rentals and property sales despite political and economic uncertainties.

Ayala attributes the company’s robust “health” to integrity and commitment, as well as innovativeness. “Sigurado ka sa Ayala,” he says.

Aside from Metro Manila, where it also has the Ayala Alabang development project, ALI has commercial and residential development projects in Laguna, Bataan, Cebu, and Bacolod. Very few people probably realize that the Pavilion Mall in Biñan, Laguna, and Metro Point Mall at the corner of Taft Avenue and Edsa where the MRT and Light Rail Transit systems meet, are also Ayala projects.