Megaworld, the country’s largest developer and lessor of office spaces, is mapping out the so-called ‘Visayas BPO triangle’ with 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.’ By 2020, our target is to bring it up to 225,000 square meters depending on market demand. So far, the demand goes up, so we see this as a big possibility,” reveals Kevin L. Tan, chief strategy officer, Megaworld, who is at the helm of the company’s office property business.

Once completed, Megaworld expects to generate around 50,000 full-time direct jobs in the BPO sector in these Visayan cities.

“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,” explains Tan.

In its ongoing 30-hectare development in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu called The Mactan Newtown, inventory of office spaces will be around 80,000 square meters by next year as the company is set to open two more office towers. These two new office towers are Tower One Plaza Magellan (to be completed this year) and Pacific World Tower (to be completed in 2017), offering an additional 34,000 square meters of fresh office spaces in The Mactan Newtown. Other towers that have been previously launched are One World Center, Manulife Center and 8 Newtown Boulevard.

“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. The Mactan Newtown is only 15 minutes away from the airport while going to Cebu City takes you around 1 ½ hours in today’s traffic condition,” says Tan.

In the company’s 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park township, inventory of office spaces will reach around 33,000 square meters by the end of this year with the expected completion of one more office tower, Three Techno Place, offering around 8,700 square meters of fresh office spaces. The first four office towers, namely Richmonde Tower (5,800 sqm), One Global Center (9,400 sqm), Two Global Center (9,100 sqm) hand One Techno Place (8,700 sqm) have already been fully leased.

Two more office towers are up for completion next year up to 2018. These are Two Techno Place (10,000 sqm) and Festive Walk Office Tower (12,000 sqm).

“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,” reveals Tan.

In Bacolod, the company plans to build office towers in its 34-hectare The Upper East township with an initial inventory of 30,000 square meters. 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).