With a 65-room, four-star designed hotel and a mix of bars, spas, diners, fitness and wellness center in its 2,000-square-meter commercial spaces and 600-person capacity function hall, Cu’s Avenue Square has not only changed the city’s landscape but their lifestyle as well.
A website literature defined the lifestyle center as “a shopping center or mixed-used commercial development that combines the traditional retail functions of a shopping mall but with leisure amenities oriented toward upscale consumers.”
In the Naga City setting, the lifestyle center Cu built is a high-end place where businessmen and associates can meet, transact business or just enjoy the amenities.
New trend
Engineer Emeterio Aman, real estate developer in Naga City, said the commercial development Cu pioneered made him revise some components of the real estate development plan of one of his subdivision projects.
He said that instead of a two-story building that would provide hotel services in his project Hacienda de Naga, he would instead build cabanas and fully furnished hotel-like apartments to complement Avenue Square’s lifestyle center.
Aldolfo Olivan of the Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry acknowledged that Cu’s pioneering initiative has set a new trend in commercial development here.
Olivan said Avenue Square has become instrumental in bringing in new experience because of its leisurely ambiance and comforts brought about by the architecture and interior design.
“Magayon baga” [“It’s beautiful”], he said.
Impressed by the impact of the Avenue Square on the thriving commercial strip of Magsaysay Avenue here that changed the Naga City’s beat after a year’s operation, Olivan decided to develop his adjacent property following designs of commercial buildings that harmonize with Cu’s lifestyle center.
Citations from city
Wilfredo Prilles, chief of the Naga City Planning Office, said that Olivan had originally planned to put up warehouses in the property in front of the Avenue Square but changed his plan when advised that this would destroy the ambiance of the whole area and violate city zoning ordinance.
Prilles said they were happy Olivan heeded their advice.
He said one reason why the Avenue Square thrives is the large segment of the city’s middle class while its poverty incidence is the lowest in Bicol, with only 1 out of every 5 households living below the poverty line.
Prilles noted the decisive role of the business sector in shaping the socioeconomic and socio-cultural scenes here.
He said the city government has not anticipated the private sector’s track of commercial development in Magsaysay Avenue, far from the city governments’ designated Central Business District II, that has yet to be developed, even though the SM group plans to put up a mall there.
In his inaugural policy statement upon assumption to his last term of office, Mayor Jesse Robredo noted that Avenue Square has perked up the economic activities in the city and made the city more vibrant and tourist-friendly.
Cu’s business achievements have earned recognition from the local government unit here when the city council passed Resolution 2007-260 that commended his “exemplary accomplishments and remarkable contribution to the business community that has brought sustainable growth and development of Naga City.”
Last year, the Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry also bestowed to this banker and developer the 2006 Halayao (archaic Bicol word for merchant) Award as Bicolano Businessman of the Year.
At the helm of the Avenue Square’s operation is Cu’s son Allan, the president of G7 Holdings Corp., while daughter-in-law Gwen is its managing director.
No comments:
Post a Comment