Italpinas tapping P500-M BPI loan to bankroll project

PROPERTY developer Italpinas Development Corp. said it is tapping bank financing to partially fund the development of its newest project Miramonti in Santo Tomas, Batangas. This will be launched by the third of fourth quarter of the year.

Romolo Nati, the company’s chairman and CEO, said they are in talks with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) for a possible P500-million loan. If the deal pushes through, it will add to the company’s borrowings to partially finance Italpinas’s other projects, like the Primavera Residences and Primavera City, both in Cagayan de Oro.

Italpinas tapped a P350-million debt from state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines to partly finance Primavera City and another laon from BPI and the Land Bank of the Philippines for Primavera Residences. Nati said it will launch the first of the three-tower Miramonti that will have a total of 1,100 units and a gross floor area of 55,000 square meters for office and commercial space.

The first tower, also the project’s first phase, will have an estimated sales value of P1.3 billion and will offer 374 studio-equivalent units, and office and commercial spaces with a total gross floor area of 22,350 sq m.

Nati said the company looks to spend P500 million for the year as capital spending, as it continues to develop its current project Primavera City in Cagayan de Oro City, where it is in the mid of developing Phase One of the seven-tower building, offering 1,400 units in total and 80,000 sq m of office and commercial spaces.

Phase One involves the construction of the first two towers and its podium, estimated to generate sales worth P1.3 billion.

Nati said Italpinas is looking at focusing on what it called as microtownships in its development strategy. He defined microtownships as a mixed-used project that involves only a few hectare of lands to develop compared to the practice of larger real-estate firms developing huge tracts over a period, depending on how the people catch on with the development.

“We are in negotiation for two properties, one in the North, one in the Visayas and the properties are several hectares. The idea is to create a mixed-use development, like a microtownship with several different components,” Nati said.

He said the company is also looking at the possibility of developing a horizontal project, though there are no firm details yet.

By VG Cabuag/Business Mirror.