While others are fixated on China's marketplace, the real estate investment division of BPE Asia invested $150 million to construct five office towers in Clark Pampanga, Philippines. Together with ADM Capital, this is the biggest overseas funding in Philippines' real estate.
The project shall provide capital for the construction of 142,000 square meter office buildings that shall house various business process outsourcing and multinational companies within Global Gateway Logistics City, nestled in a 177-hectare area in Clark Freeport. This area is just 80 kilometers away from the Philippines' capital, Metro Manila.
Mark Fogle, BPE Asia's head of real estate and former AIG executive, expressed his trust in the Philippine market sector. In a report by South China Morning Post, a statement of Fogle reads, "We have confidence in the Philippines. The country is changing dramatically and the middle class is growing rapidly".
Furthermore, in a report by Sun Star, Fogle said, "the strong demand for office space in Metro Manila has resulted in high occupancy and rising rental costs, leading existing tenants and new entrants to look at secondary markets such as Cebu and Clark."
Philippines is showing promise in real estate since the emergence of many US and European outsourcing firms. Currently, this country is known to be the contact center capital of the world. It is one of the major outsourcing destinations aside from India.
This project is set to make Clark Freeport, in the Philippines, one of the leading choices for business in Asia. It is expected to give employment to many Filipinos most especially in the Central and Northern parts of Luzon.
The Global Gateway Development Corporation's goal is to provide at least 300,000 job opportunities within a decade of the project's completion. It will also introduce Central Luzon as a new venture hotspot in the Philippines aside from Metro Manila.