Finally, the Capitol Property for sale and lease was awarded to Ayala Land yesterday through a negotiated bidding. The Capitol properties up for lease and sale consists of 7.7068 hectares along Lacson Street, North Capitol Road and Aguinaldo Street in Bacolod City. The properties that are for sale was 3.6 hectares, while 4.1 hectares directly surrounding the Capitol are for lease.
Although it was SM Prime Holdings who first offered an unsolicited bid, there were several failed bidding which led SM to file a petition for a Temporary Restraining Order last Wednesday. SM’s petition for TRO was denied by the court thus the negotiated bid proceeded as scheduled on Jul 15, 2011. SM lost the bidding by default after they failed to submit their bid.
It was reported that Ayala plans to invest P6 billion for the development of Capitol Civic Center to include retail, residential, hotel, convention center and office zones. Ayala will also invest an additional P25 million for the development of the Capitol Park and Lagoon.
The Capitol Civic Center will surely be another landmark development of Ayala Land who also developed the Bonifacio Global City and Trinoma Mall. Ayala already has several investments in the province with their Ayala North Point property and the Ayala North Point Technohub.
Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr. considers this development as the “biggest investment in the province.” For the Negrosanons, this will be another legacy of his administration. Insofar as vision and political will are concerned, he and his brother, the late Joseph Marañon has proven that their administration has a lot of it. In can be remembered that it was under the administration of Joseph Marañon that the squatters in this same capitol property were relocated.