BACOLOD City remains a preferred location for outsourcing operations, an official of global real property services company Colliers International Philippines said.
Joey Roi Bondoc, research manager of Colliers International Philippines, said the number of existing voice business process outsourcing (BPO) is continuously expanding while some knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) companies are looking at the city as a potential site outside Metro Manila.
Bondoc said while Bacolod remains a major destination for call center services, its talent pool needs to scale up if the city is to corner a larger fraction of the local KPO pie.
“With the expansion from existing locators and limited office supply in the pipeline, Colliers encourages developers to continue constructing office towers especially in Philippine Economic Zone Authority accredited zones where cost-sensitive locators can take advantage of fiscal incentives,” he added.
The firm suggested that local and national firms should explore the possibility of developing plug-and-play offices as incoming KPO firms are in immediate need of buildings ready for occupancy and want to reduce their capital expenditures.
Colliers said companies should also continue developing offices within integrated business hubs as these master-planned communities provide the retail and residential complement required by outsourcing firms.
It also encouraged tenants and landlords to explore opportunities at the city’s port and old airport site that can be redeveloped into mixed-use projects.
The expansion of the city’s office stock over the past decade has been primarily driven by the thriving outsourcing operations in the city, the company added.
In its report, Colliers said the city’s total office space is pegged at 107,500 square meters as of the end of last year.
The growing demand for quality space in the city propelled the Provincial Government to open the Negros First Cyber Centre in 2015, it said.
From only 11,100 square meters of gross leasable area in 2004, the city’s stock has grown almost ten times to 107,500 square meters in 2017, it reported.
“Over the next 12 to 36 months, we see national developers raising Bacolod City’s office stock by at least 21,000 square meters representing close to 20 percent of the current stock,” Colliers added.
Moreover, among the projects in the pipeline is the 16,000-square-meter Capitol Corporate Centre that Ayala Land will develop within its Capitol Central Township near the Provincial Capitol.
Another local developer is also planning to build a 5,000-square-meter office tower near the city center, the reports further showed.
The local player plans to start construction by the third quarter of this year and targets to complete the building by the middle of 2020.
“We see the city’s office stock reaching 128,500 square meters by 2020, about 20 percent higher than the 2017 stock,” it added. (EPN)