BIGFOOT Properties Inc. will present tomorrow to the Cebu City Government its proposal to buy 4.6 hectares of the South Road Properties (SRP).
The purchase is part of the expansion of its entertainment complex on a leased property, also at the SRP.
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Mayor Tomas Osmeña said Bigfoot has a studio at the SRP, but it has no place for its talents and other personnel to stay.
With its expansion project, it will build low-rise condominium buildings, especially for its foreign staff.
The company has signed a 25-year lease agreement for two hectares of the SRP in 2007 for its studio.
Bigfoot’s offer will come a week after the mayor divulged the unsolicited proposal of SM Prime Holdings Inc. to purchase 30.41 hectares of the SRP.
In its proposal, SM Prime said it intends to build a 25-hectare shopping mall, which is “twice” the size of SM Mall at the North Reclamation Area; a convention facility with a minimum floor area of two hectares (20,000 square meters); hotels; and later, a school, a hospital and high-rise condominiums.
“To further complement the commercial development, we intend to build more high-rise residential condominiums after five calendar years from the execution of this contract with Cebu City subject to market conditions,” said SM Prime Holdings president Hans T. Sy.
Last Saturday, nobody from among the hundreds of barangay officials whom the mayor consulted in an assembly whether the City would accept or not, objected to SM’s offer.
Sy said work will start within 18 months from the completion of SM Prime’s first payment to Cebu City.
Aside from SM Prime and Bigfoot, another investor, a Korean company, wants to buy five hectares for the construction of a hotel and a casino.
“Niingon ang Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) that the Korean group is already screened by them, so sige na lang,” Osmeña said.
The mayor said SM’s proposal will undergo a Swiss challenge, while Bigfoot and the Korean group will have to take part in an open bidding.
City Hall will form a selection committee that will accept challenges to SM Prime’s offer.
Osmeña said he is confident that with Bigfoot developing its lot, “mo-double ang presyo sa yuta sa SRP.”
He said, though, that the Korean group is on “stand by” because one of its top executives was recently diagnosed with cancer.