CELESTIAL Meadows Developers Corp. (CMDC) is eyeing to expand its business outside of Cebu as Filipinos are now more open-minded and appreciative of investing in memorial lots due to its high appreciation value rates.
In an interview, Roberto Gerald Macalalad, strategic business unit head at Celestial Meadows, said younger Filipinos are breaking the taboo of talking about death, hence, they are preparing everything related to it.
For one, young professionals are now keen on buying memorial lots, understanding that it is a good investment whose value appreciates over time.
“Buying memorial lots is a good investment... young professionals are now seeking solid investments that could give them passive income,” said Macalalad.
Celestial Meadows is one of the active players in Cebu’s death care industry. The company has over 20 hectares of memorial properties spread across the province of Cebu. It has memorial parks in Minglanilla, Naga, Toledo, Moalboal and Compostela.
Macalalad said the company is eyeing new sites to expand its business as its properties in Cebu are almost sold out. He said outlined in the company’s roadmap is to spread its wings outside of Cebu and build scenic memorial parks in places like Bohol, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Leyte (Baybay), Tacloban and other key cities whose markets are ready for players like them.
But before doing so, Macalalad said they will saturate Cebu first by embarking on joint ventures with landowners or developing pocket-sized memorial parks.
“Pandemic has allowed us to re-examine where our company is heading and it allowed us to zero in on areas that need immediate attention and one of them is to transform our memorial parks into scenic parks for families to create more memories,” said Macalalad.
“People parks aren’t for the dead. They are for the living... for them to enjoy the location,” he added. “The pandemic allowed us to beautify our parks and to make it more scenic so people could visit our parks all year round not only during All Souls’ Day and make each location ‘selfie-worthy.’”
Such initiative, according to Macalalad, will allow them to attract more clients and make people feel comfortable to talk about dying and prepare for death. “It is in our unpreparedness that issues arise, so we intend to become a memorial solutions provider,” he said, adding that they will keep on improving their services to lighten the burden of bereaved families.
Week-long celebration
Meanwhile, besides making their parks scenic, Celestial Meadows announced it is set to celebrate week-long Halloween activities with concerts, singing contests, tricks or treats and other fun-filled activities.
Dubbed as the “Memorial Week 2022” CMDC’s four locations – Minglanilla, Toledo City, Moalboal and Compostela – will host a variety of programs for families who will visit CMDC memorial gardens.
Celestial Meadows Minglanilla will have a blessing of its courtyard, ossuary and family estate on Wednesday, Oct. 26. Minglanilla, CMDC’s first project, opened over two decades ago. Toledo will have an enchanted Zumba dance on Saturday, Oct. 29. These events are open to the public.
Celestial Meadows Minglanilla will have a cosplay event on Monday, Oct. 31, and Holy Masses on Tuesday, Nov. 1, and Wednesday, Nov. 2.
Celestial Meadows Compostela will start its week-long celebration with a motorcade, a zumbathon and a singing contest on Sunday, Oct. 30, and a trick or treat on Oct. 31.
Legacy Plains Toledo will also have its own Zumba contest on Oct. 30 and trick or treat activities, family games, costume contest, paper lantern contest and a singing contest dubbed as “Sounds of Love, Life and Legacy” on Oct. 31.
The Divine Mercy Moalboal will also have its own special activities beginning Oct. 30.
“We wanted to make this year’s All Souls’ Day meaningful since it has been two years that we weren’t able to go out and visit the graves of our departed loved ones,” said Macalalad.