SHIFTING from fashion design to real estate as a career is quite a sharp U-turn.
Annabelle “Annie” Osmeña Aboitiz finished fashion design in New York’s Parson’s School of Design and was quietly making wedding gowns for close relatives and friends. Little did she know that one day she would take the well-trodden road of real estate.
It all started with her brother Lito (i.e. Emilio Jr). In 1965, he initiated the development of Maria Luisa Estate Park out of the 10-hectare piece of land his mother, who died in 1963, had bought.
In 1972, when the country was under Martial Law, her brother Sonny’s (John Henry) political career was halted and he fled to the United States in exile. Lito became a political prisoner in 1973. When he and Sonny were gone, the development of the property fell into Annie’s hands. The family’s farm and coal mine did not go fallow either. She took care of them also.
Looking back, Annie says her widowed mother had somehow taught her how to run a business and how to check vouchers and other things. Annie said that her mother (the wife of Emilio Osmeña Sr., who was known to have been killed by the Japanese in the early years of World War II) had to do these things in order to survive and to rear her children.
When Lito was freed, he came back to manage Maria Luisa but Annie remained treasurer. Later, the whole development fell into her hands once more—this time permanently when Lito became Cebu governor in 1988. Maria Luisa has since grown from a 10-hectare subdivision to today’s total of 200 hectares, slowly built up by phases, the last one being Phase 11, in development contracts with different people including Phase 9, The Highlands, which Maria Luisa developed with the Province of Cebu.
Through the years, Annie has been also into other realty development. In 1986, she built Maryville Condominium on the lot where her family’s house once stood. She also has Maryville in Talamban and Maryville Hieights above the same area. She also has Redstone Village, Kahayahay I and II, Beverly Glen (which was bought by the Kuok company), Agro-Macro Subdivision, Fairview, Ma. Luisa South in Guadalupe, Casili Hills Subdivision in Mandaue, Palm Hills in Basak, Mandaue (developed at a time when rip-rappers were out of work and she employed them to make the stone houses in this subdivision), the Dancing Sun subdivision in Bolinawan, Carcar. Her most recent development is The Heritage, in Jagobiao, Mandaue, and also partly in Consolacion.
For some years now, she has stopped her career in fashion design because her husband, Louie, asked her to choose between that and realty development. She chose the latter, which she enjoys more and which permits her to rest after 5 p.m.—no more fittings after that time, unlike in the fashion scene.
She says she has always obeyed the rules in realty development and Maria Luisa is one subdivision where all power lines are underground. She adds that when she started in the business, it was a “mom and pop” operation where she had to do most things herself. She has since learned it is so much easier on her to hire people, like landscapers, contractors, which makes the development more expensive. But at the end of the day, she gets a good product.
She comments that her latest project, The Heritage, might be her last. Don’t count on it, though, because if Annie sees a need and an opportunity, she will seize it. She is, after all, the daughter of feisty, hardworking Maria Luisa Renner Osmeña.