AGRIYA, Damosa Land, Inc.’s (DLI) agricultural metropolis, and the University of the Philippines Professional School for Agriculture and the Environment (UP-PSAE) broke ground in Panabo City, Davao del Norte Thursday, May 18.
The groundbreaking of the 88-hectare agricultural development signified the start of the construction for the first phase of Agriya development which is targeted to start within the year.
In a separate interview, DLI vice president Ricardo Floreindo Lagdameo said they are to develop around 40-hectare of the property for the first phase.
Expected to be the first of its kind in Asia, Agriya will be composed of a nine-hectare residential, 24-hectare commercial, nine-hectare agri tourism, and another nine-hectare institutional component.
“From the original plan, we broke it up into several phases. The thinking now is to have it done in three phases. Although a bulk of the development will really be in the first phase. I think probably, half of the land, is included in the first phase already,” said Lagdameo.
The residential components will target to begin development by the third quarter of the year with the selling to begin right after. All of the residential units were designed by architect John Alegado.
The residential units will be composed of two types, the Agriya Residences and Ameria.
The Agriya Residences is an open market housing. Around 88 lots, a mix of house and lot and open lots, will be made available for the residences, with the house playing around with the California Mission Style architecture. Agriya Residences units come in bungalow house models and two-storey house models with average lot size of 343 square meters (sq.m) and with floor areas ranging from 137 to 267 sq.m.
The second type of residential unit, which is also inspired by the same theme as the Agriya Residences, will be called Ameria. It’s a medium cost to open market housing with 137 lots. Ameria units are available in bungalow house model only with average lot size of 165 sqm and floor area ranging from 69 sq.m to 132 sq.m.
Reservation fee for Agriya Residences is at P50,000 with indicative selling price ranging from P6 million to P15 million and for Ameria a down payment of P20,000 and indicative selling price of P3 million to P8 million. Both of the villages will require a 20 percent down payment spread over 36 months covered by post-dated checks. The units, upon completion of the 20 percent down payment and the receipt of the loan proceeds, will be ready for turnover.
“We didn’t want anything that you will have to burn fuel for. Again, we want to stay true to the environment and we wanted to be as natural as possible,” Lagdameo said.
UP-PSAE as a means to capacitate other SUCs faculty
University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) Chancellor Fernando Sanchez, Jr. considers the groundbreaking and the partnership of the university with DLI as a realization of a long-term dream to have UPLB Professional School in Mindanao. He said this was a dream for them even during the early 1990’s long before University of the Philippines Mindanao in Davao City was established.
Around 31,900 sqm of land area will be donated by DLI to the university to be constructed within Agriya. They target that the construction start also within the year. UP-PSAE will be offering off-campus mode the Master of Science in Plant Pathology. Additional graduate programs, short courses, and trainings will be announced as they become available depending on the needs of the state universities and colleges (SUCs) and other institutions. Professors from UPLB will be flying to the UPSAE, Agriya on weekends.
“When we had a stakeholder’s meeting last month here in Davao City, with SUCs president and UP Mindanao Chancellor Sylvia Concepcion, we remove the notion that we are going to compete. We’re not going to compete. We’re going to help you capacitate your faculty and researchers. To compete per se, we cannot compete because we’re going to have a small student population. It’s not a competition. More of capacitating. That’s how we want to help Mindanao on a national development through education and to perform the UP’s mandate to be a graduate research. It’s part of our public service initiative,” Sanchez said. (JPA)