Megaworld Corporation, the country’s largest developer and lessor of office spaces, is mapping out what it is calling the “Visayas BPO triangle” consisting of its three huge township developments in Iloilo, Cebu and Bacolod.
“We are targeting around 175,000 square meters of office spaces for the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in these three key cities in the next three years to form the so‐called ‘Visayas BPO Triangle,’” said Megaworld Senior Vice President Jericho Go.
Megaworld's Northill Gateway in Bacolod City envisioned to be another future BPO hub in the Visayas
Go, who is at the helm of the company’s office property business, noted that, “by 2020, our target is to bring it up to 225,000 sqm depending on market demand. So far, the demand goes up, so we see this as a big possibility.”
Once completed, Megaworld expects to generate around 50,000 full‐time direct jobs in the BPO sector in these Visayan cities.
Cebu's The Mactan Newtown township develop by Megaworld is seen to become a prominent BPO center.
“If we talk about direct and indirect jobs, we see around 300,000 for Cebu, Iloilo and Bacolod by end-2019. These include jobs that can be generated within our townships such as those from transport and retail,” explained Go.
In its ongoing 30-hectare development in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu called The Mactan Newtown, inventory of office spaces will be around 80,000 sqm. by next year as the company is set to open two more office towers.
“In Cebu, there is a growing preference for BPO locators to be in Mactan Island because of the traffic problem and congestion in Cebu City. We see Lapu-Lapu City as a big alternative location for BPOs in Central Visayas especially that the new and bigger Mactan-Cebu International Airport will be completed soon,” said Go.
Iloilo Business Park is expected to become the largest BPO hub in Western Visayas
For the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park township, inventory of office spaces will reach around 33,000 square sqm. by the end of this year with the expected completion of one more office tower. Two more office towers are up for completion next year up to 2018 to add 22,000 sqm.
Iloilo Business Park will build 10 BPO buildings and provide more than 30,000 BPO jobs in the next 10 years.
“By end-2018, we will have around 65,000 square meters of office spaces in Iloilo Business Park and we will have more first time locators lined up for Iloilo,” revealed Go.
In Bacolod, the company plans to build office towers in its 34-hectare The Upper East township with an initial inventory of 30,000 sqm. To date, the company has already started the land development of the area, which was formerly the site of the Bacolod-Murcia Milling Company (BMMC).
