6 developments that’ll make you say ‘cool!’

By Tessa Salazar
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: September 12, 2009

IS YOUR developer suffering from agoraphobia, the fear of wide, open spaces? If so, then that developer is making life a bit worse for you. It might be time to set your sights for not only greener but more spacious pastures.

Open spaces are essential for “keeping your cool.” In a tropical, humid climate such as what the Philippines has, open spaces are effective for countering the effects of what Inquirer Property columnist and “green architect” Amado de Jesus calls the “urban heat island effect.”

However, if you own property in one of the open space-loving developers and projects listed below, then we have two things to say to you: Keep it, and stay there.

1. Ayala Land’s Anvaya Cove in Morong, Bataan. Its mango grove park alone (at a cool one hectare or 10,000 square meters) makes spending your days here all worth it. The park was built to protect half-century-old mango trees. In total, Anvaya Cove is all of 320 hectares of forested foothills of mango and narra trees --
most of which have been purposely left untouched.

2. Nuvali in Laguna. At 1,700 hectares, this upcoming Ayala Land metropolis in Laguna dwarfs the Ayala Makati CBD 10 times over, and if you do the math, its claim of 45 percent open space translates to a whopping 765 hectares. That’s space earmarked for bike trails, jogging paths, exercise stations, orchards, pocket parks, and various common amenity areas.

Nuvali is so large it can sustain itself as a nature sanctuary. And that’s what the developer intends for the development in favor of its nonhuman dwellers and endemic flora, which include the Philippine Bat Snake, flying lizards, the reticulated python, the short-nosed fruit bat, the large lamo tree, the small takip asin tree, Niog-niogan and the Binuang tree.

3. Filinvest’s Timberland in San Mateo, Rizal. Nearly half of this 677-hectare master-planned community will reportedly be dedicated to open spaces, including the 80 hectares of so-called Greenways sprawled all over the town. Greenways will include different nature and recreation nodes such as theme parks, lagoons, camp grounds, and horse and bike trails that can be enjoyed by the community’s existing and future residents.

Timberland Heights, on the other hand, offers themed communities, the biggest of which would be the 7,303-sq-m amenity area of the 40-hectare Mandala Residential Farm Estates 1. Here, you’ll find community amenities like a clubhouse with view deck and a swimming pool. Only 20 percent of the total development area of the Mandala Residential Estates 1 and 2 will be used for home structures, while the remaining 80 percent will be dedicated to open spaces or for farming activities of residents.

For its various projects, Filinvest has been maintaining low-density communities.

For instance, the residential projects Banyan Ridge, Banyan Crest and The Ranch have a density ratio of a maximum 20 lots for every hectare. For Farm Estates Mandala 1 and 2, the maximum ratio is just 7 lots per hectare.

4. Ayala Greenfields Estates in Calamba, Laguna. Only Ayala has enough land in hand to make 15 hectares into a nature park. Again, the property giant makes nonhuman dwellers co-equal stakeholders in Ayala Greenfields Estates, where 35 species and 21 families of endemic and migratory birds such as doves, woodpeckers, flower peckers, swallows, wagtails and shrikes consider their fly zones. In the nature park, humans can share the airspace with feathered friends, or just relax in the ambience of tree houses and picnic huts surrounded by gardens.

5. Megaworld’s McKinley Hill (Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City). Megaworld’s biggest live-work-play-learn community is an example of maximizing open space in a limited area. Sure, 50 hectares don’t seem like much if you range it against the land areas of other big-ticket projects, but when you consider the location (right at the heart of a congested Mega Manila), then McKinley Hill is an admirable feat, and it complies with the requirements of Presidential Decree 957, which states that 30 percent of a development must remain open and non-saleable.

So what can you see and do in 15 hectares of non-saleable open space? Priceless breathing space in a forest park, what else, and that’s a truly hard commodity to come by in a megalopolis.

The saleable area of McKinley Hill, of course, is where you’ll put your money in. It has its residential area with the high-end subdivision McKinley Hill Village, condominiums such as the Venice Luxury Residences, commercial areas such as the upcoming Venetian Mall, office areas (BPO office spaces in One, Two and Three World Square and the new Commerce and Industry Plaza), schools and embassies (Chinese International School Manila, Korean International School, British Embassy and Korean Embassy).

6. Celadon Manila (Manila). Going even smaller, Celadon Manila, the 6-hectare in-city development by Alveo Land, has nearly 2.2 hectares of green, open space and amenities. Alveo, an Ayala subsidiary, claims the open space is the largest in any residential development in Manila. Its 202-unit Celadon Residences (townhomes), has a density of just 48 units per hectare.

Celadon Manila presents a salable area of 19,651 sq m and a non-saleable area of 22,349 square meters. It is composed of three distinctive elements that characterize a cohesive urban ecosystem-retail (shops at Celadon) to be managed by Ayala malls, business (Vertex One) by Ayala Land Businesscapes and residential (Celadon Residences and Celadon Park) by Alveo Land.