BIZ BUZZ: SM gains ground along Manila Bay

You can see it when you pass by the Manila Bay area. A vast new tract of raw land has emerged from the sea, expanding the Mall of Asia territory.

Property giant SM Prime Holdings—one of the two firms allowed by the government to proceed with the Manila Bay reclamation project—has now completed most of the sand filling at its 360-hectare future central business district expansion.

“We’re done with most of the sand pouring. We’ll start to do the land development,” SM Prime president Jeffrey Lim recently told Biz Buzz.

“We’re moving forward … [We’re] working on completing it,” he said.

Lim said SM Prime was on track to complete the reclamation by 2028 as it had committed.

Asked whether the group was starting to presell portions of its share of land to institutional locators (the buzz is that the other reclamation proponent is already doing so), Lim said SM Prime’s focus for now would be to complete the development.

“By completing, we have to make sure all the infrastructure, utilities, parks, the land dev (development) will be completed,” he said.

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The reclamation project, earlier estimated to cost $3 billion, is sanctioned by the Pasay City local government.

Meanwhile, SM Prime is understandably in no rush to proceed with its real estate investment trust offering, an equity deal that is much awaited by investors, given the lethargic situation of the local capital market.

“At the end of the day, it’s always something that we will consider. But there are several factors in making that decision,” Lim said. “To me, it’s really timing. If you look at the market, it’s still at its lowest.”