Wednesday, August 15, 2007 Getting acquianted with Landco
PLAYA Calatagan. The 800 meter river pool featuring pool cabañas and a wet walk-up pool bar.
Leisure estates were not yet “in” when Landco Pacific Corporation pioneered in what is now known as leisure development.
Yes, the real estate company founded by Alfred Xerez-Burgos Jr., started the fad of second/weekend homes by the sea or at the countryside. From the time Landco began its real estate ventures in the provinces near Metro Manila, there was no turning back and the developments have expanded to include primary home subdivisions and shopping centers in emerging cities in Luzon.
With its track record of highly successful projects, the Landco group headed by chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan and president/CEO Alfred Xerez-Burgos Jr. finally decided to make a presence in the Visayas-Mindanao area. And what place could be better to start with than our Queen City of the South?
Landco visualized a large, high-impact and one-of-a-kind project in Cebu. It seemed an impossible dream, until the 220-hectare Villalon property atop the hills of Guadalupe came into the picture. Then everything fell into place with the forging of a partnership between Landco and GENVI Development Corp. represented by siblings Augusto and Margarita Villalon.
The project is called Monterrazas de Cebu. It is an upscale residential community set to change the landscape of Cebu, and envisioned to capture “. . .Cebuano traditions and values with its design and architecture, invoking a sense of pride in the Cebuano identity.” Formal groundbreaking was held last May.
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To acquaint Cebu’s lifestyle writers with Landco’s leisure developments, SVP-sales and marketing Alfred “Alby” Xerez-Burgos III, with the assistance of corporate communications angels Kay Alcantara and Thea Marie Gutierrez, organized a press tour to Landco properties in Cavite and Batangas.
The two-day trip started off at Ponderosa Leisure Farms, the first flower garden community in Silang, Cavite, featuring a Mexican-Spanish-inspired village. It boasts of a sprawling clubhouse with a swimming pool, an outdoor dining area, special events zone, a village market and blooming gardens. Very picturesque!
Next stop was at the Leisure Farms in Lemery, Batangas. Designed for “weekend farmers” and hobbyists, the 123-hectare development stands proud as the first agro-tourism, residential and hobby farming community in the country. Rural as rural can be!
We spent the night at the beautiful seaside haven, called Peninsula de Punta Fuego in Nasugbu, Batangas. We were billeted in one of the spacious casitas of Club Punta Fuego. Oh yes, the club has all kinds of first class facilities—dining, spa, watersports, etc. It is a different world out there in that very exclusive enclave where fabulous Mediterranean-style homes abound.
A few miles away is Terrazas de Punta Fuego, an ongoing development composed of The Peak on the eastern side of the Nasugbu mountain overlooking Batangas, Cavite, and the South China Sea; The Ridge, a seaside community rimmed by 800 meters of white sand; and Amara en Terrazas, Punta Fuego’s luxury oceanfront apartments.
Down by the beach and in full operation is the Terrazas Beach Club with its beautiful pool, Asian-inspired cabanas and its landmark Terrazas boardwalk. Other fun features are the Turtle Pool, the Game Hall and KTV.
Another Landco project in Batangas is Playa Calatagan, a very promising residential-leisure-tourism development fronting a long stretch of white beach.
It is a 92-hectare property envisioned to be “the fun playground by the beach” to surpass Boracay. On the drawing board are a resort hotel and a commercial center. Exclusive to the subdivision residents are the hilltop clubhouse overlooking the Calatagan coastline and recreation parks.
After the leisurely two-day paseo around the Landco developments in Cavite and Batangas, we now have an idea of how Landco puts its ideas into reality.
We eagerly anticipate the transformation of the city’s nearby hills into the one-of-a-kind Monterrazas de Cebu!
