By James A. Loyola
YHEST Realty and Development Corporation, a joint venture between the Yuson, Huang and Tan families of the Villa-Abrille clan of Davao and Cebu Landmasters, Inc. (CLI) have started development of the P33-billion Davao Global Township (DGT).
The firm is now working on the township’s Phase 1 which will cost P10 billion to develop. YHEST is transforming a 22-hectare golf course owned by the clan at the Matina district into Davao City’s iconic business district.
Phase 1 of DGT is estimated to have an extensive 93,000 square meters of gross floor area as envisioned by YHEST with master-planner RTKL, a global planning and design firm responsible for the revival of some downtown centers in the world.
DGT Phase 1 is set for completion in 2022. Edifices planned for this phase include a corporate center, two premier residential towers, a retail strip with a cineplex, and outdoor retail spaces called the DGT Town Strip, as well as a civic center to be named DGT Gallery.
“These are exciting times for Davao and the Philippines as this tie-up (with CLI) ushers a new generation of local homegrown developers ready to be at par with the best of the world,” said YHEST President Fred Yuson, a fifth-generation descendant of one of Davao’s forefathers, the businessman Francisco “Juna” Villa-Abrille.
The Villa-Abrille family is one of the oldest clans in Davao that is into leasing of commercial offices and buildings such as Matina IT Park and Sutherland Global Services.
They launched Davao’s first residential subdivision in 1952 and put up the Davao City Golf Club, the first and oldest golf course in the city until it was closed in 2018 to make way for DGT.
“As the descendants of Juna Villa-Abrille, we commit ourselves to his legacy of hard work, humility and generosity. We are happy that in our generation, we are able to kick-start all these simultaneous developments and there’s no better way but to partner with VisMin’s leading developer Cebu Landmasters,” Yuson said.
DGT is their third and biggest project together with CLI. MesaTierra, a garden residential condominium is already 98 percent sold-out while The Paragon Davao, a mixed-use property that will host Citadines Paragon Davao, was launched in November last year.
The residential component One Paragon Place is already 75 percent sold in first 3 weeks of selling. “Things are happening fast in our generation and we trust CLI’s expertise particularly in the VisMin market,” he said.