BAGUIO CITY July 01 – The contention for the P6 billion development of the city’s public market has been confined to two rival companies-based n the evaluation of the Public Private Partnership for the People (P4) screening committee.
City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña, who chairs the P4 screening committee, informed members of the City Council during last Monday’s regular session that the approved modality of the proposed multi-billion market development project will be lease contract where the contenders had been confined to SM Prime Holdings and Robinsons Land Corporation.
He pointed out that the committee is still on the process of ascertaining which of the two companies will be granted the Original Proponent Status (OPS) based on the city’s P4 ordinance that is part of the 19-step procedure in determining the winning developer for the said project.
The city administrator claimed that the screening committee is still in the second step where negations between the declared OPS and the local government will follow to formalize the terms of reference for the project which will subsequently be published.
He claimed that the company that will be granted the OPS will still be subjected to the Swiss challenge by the company that was not successful in obtaining the aforesaid status and other companies that are interested to develop the city’s public market where the company with the OPS can match proposed superior offers from participating developers.
According to him, the whole process from the granting of the OPS up to the award of the project will take at least 8 months that is why the committee is working double time to ensure that the proposed development of the city’s public market will be realized.
Initially, SM proposed to construct a 7-storey structure over the 3-hectare city public market area that could accommodate some 5,396 vendors with a financial exposure of more than P5.4 billion while Robinsons proposed to put up two structures within a 4.5-hectare area where one of the structures will be owned by the city and the other to be used for the company’s mixed use complex with a financial exposure of P6.4 billion.
Further, SM also proposed that the lease period will be 50 -years where the city will pay the developer the structure at a depreciated cost prior to its turnover while Robinsons stated in its proposal that the lease period will be 50 years with an automatic renewal for another 25 years.
Under SM’s proposal, the first two floors of the building, particularly the first and second floors, will be managed by the local government as the same will serve as the site for the city’s public market where the lease rentals will be dictated and controlled by the city while Robinsons proposed that one of the structures that will be reacted over a 20,000-square meter area with still undetermined number of floors will be owned and managed by the city and the second structure will be solely managed by the proponent.
SM stated in its proposal that it will shoulder the cost of the construction and demolition of the stalls in the identified relocation site of the vendors that will be displaced during the implementation of the project with an estimated cost of P75 million and will also give to the city some P50 million upon the issuance of the notice to proceed for the implementation of the development project that will take some 2 years while Robinson will compete the project in two and a half years. By Dexter A. See
