Hiring for 2,000 jobs starts next week

Two major outsourcing companies locating at Megaworld Corp.’s’ One World Center of the Mactan Newtown will  start their recruitment activities here in Cebu this Wednesday.

EnfraUSA and Results Manila Inc. will start their recruitment activities in time with Wednesday’s grand launching of the One World Center that will be inaugurated by President Benigno Aquino III.

The One World Center would be the first of many more office buildings to be built within the property, said Jericho P. Go,  Megaworld first vice president for business development and leasing division, in a press briefing at the Marriott Hotel last Saturday.

EnfraUSA and Results Manila are the first two locators in the center.

“EnfraUSA and Results Manila have presence in Manila already. Results World is our tenant in Eastwood while EnfraUSA is operating in Ortigas,” said Go.

Go said more than 2,000 people would be hired by the two companies since the  6,000 square meter office space leased at One World Center by the two companies will have a seating capacity of 1,400.

Go said the two firms which offer a wide array of services for their global clients were expected to start operations in April this year.

“There’s a lot of available positions like technical support, HR (human resource), administrative works that are outsourced, accounting, technology, customer service support and more,” he said.

Second Tower

With the fast uptake of their first BPO building, Go said they would also do the groundbreaking for their second tower called the Two World Center on Wednesday.

“The second building will have 7,500 square meters of floor area which means another more than 2,000 jobs for the Cebuanos,” Go said.

Go said Megaworld targets completion of the second building in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year.

He said the company already started negotiating with two to three more outsourcing companies that were interested to locate in the property.

“They are our existing tenants in our other properties and they have already expressed their interest. These are big names in the industry and when they say they are interested they really mean it,” Go said.

More Space

In two or three years, Go said there would be more spaces available for lease at their 8 Newtown Boulevard and Pacific World Tower.

The tower can accommodate a combined capacity of about 13,000 seats or roughly about 25,000 jobs for Cebu.

“By 2014 or early 2015 we should have already completed 8 Newtown Boulevard and the Pacific World Tower. That will add more available space for the further expansion of the outsourcing industry of Cebu,” said Go.

According to a study conducted by Colliers International, Megaworld has maintained its top position as a provider of business process outsourcing offices in the past decade.

The study reported that Megaworld ended 2010 with the biggest share in the BPO office market at 30 percent and the largest supply pipeline until 2015.

Residential

Aside from their success in leasing their office spaces, Go said Megaworld would also be launching another condominium cluster within the first half of this year following the fast uptake of their residential condominium projects—8 Newtown Boulevard with four towers and One Pacific Residences.

“These two projects are already sold out so we are looking at launching another cluster of two to three condominium towers this year,” said Harold Geronimo, strategic marketing and communications director of Megaworld.

Geronimo, however, declined to give more details about the project.

According to Go, their 8 Newtown Boulevard condominium units are bought mostly by Japanese retirees while units of the One Pacific Residences are sold mostly to the local market.

“We are not closing our doors to also getting more buyers from other nationalities. In fact, we have a lot of interest from Europeans and Germans,” said Go.

Live, Work, Play

To complete their live-work-play concept, Go said they were finalizing plans for the retail , hotel, and wellness segment of the project.

“For the hotel, we are firming up our plans. We have to know what market we would like to cater to, will it be business or leisure. It’s in the pipeline,” said Go.

The wellness center that is in partnership with the Cebu Doctors University will cater to the medical and wellness needs of the retirees that will live in their property.

“For the shopping or retail segment, One Pacific Residences will actually house a mall at the ground floor which has about 10,000 square meters of available space for retail and shopping,” said Go.

Bigger Investment

Geronimo said the company announced in the middle of last year that it would put in more than P10 billion as initial investment

“Our chairman and chief executive officer Mr. Andrew L. Tan is set to make an announcement of a bigger investment for the project this Wednesday during the grand launch,” he said.

Geronimo said the expanded investment only shows the company’s confidence in the potential of their first township project in Cebu.