PROPERTY developer SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPHI) officially opened last week its third office building along the SM Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City to help narrow the gap between the demand and supply of workplaces in the country.

With a gross floor area (GFA) of 126,907 square meters (sq m), Five E-Com Center is a 15-story building that offers a leasable area of 88,000 sq m to various locators, especially outsourcing companies.

SMPHI Senior Vice President Dave Rafael said that the growth of the information technology-business-process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry has led to an increase in the demand for office space.

In fact, he told reporters in an interview that “70 percent to 75 percent” of their tenants for the three existing E-Com Centers are BPOs and call centers.

One E-Com Center first opened in 2008, followed by Two E-Com Center in 2012.

The executive cited that Five E-Com Center, which “costs a little below P3 billion,” is now “almost considered a hundred-percent leased out,” with high-profile tenants, including Telstra, Teletech, Vestas, Tupperware, Klaveness and Xerox, among others. Expecting the continued expansion of the BPO sector, generating around $25 billion in revenues and employing about 1.3 million and 3.2 million local talents directly and indirectly by 2016, Rafael is bullish that it will continue to take a huge office space in their upcoming three buildings within the complex.

The P3.2-billion Three E-Com Center is slated for opening in 2017, while the P3.5-billion Four E-Com Center will break ground in the first quarter of next year and will be completed by 2019.

“[As for the] Six E-Com, we’re hoping to break ground there by maybe late 2016,” he bared, without citing the amount of investment and target year of completion for this last office tower to rise in the area.

Apart from BPO locators, SMPHI is also banking on a strong demand for office space from logistics and shippings firms given its strategic location to major gateways in the country, like the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Manila Port Area.

Mostly comprising the remaining 25 percent of their tenant mix at present, these companies, according to Rafael, have also moved their offices to their current E-Com hubs.

He attributed this to the so-called flight to quality, wherein these businesses, whose  existing offices are mostly in Intramuros or in other parts of Manila, which are a bit downgraded, look for nicer office facilities yet still near the port area.

Such a trend is “now happening,” and he expects it to continue for their upcoming office buildings, “not unless they redevelop Manila.”

SMPHI is the property arm of the SM Group of Companies, which has major business interests in banking and retail sectors apart from property segment.  To date, it has developed key establishments in the residential, office, hotels and other leisure-oriented projects.

The company posted a net income growth of 70 percent in the first nine months of this year, with consolidated revenues rising to P52.2 billion.