Biz Buzz: Edifice complex

The ongoing feud between Century Properties of former Ambassador Jose Antonio and Picar Development Inc. of Amable Aguiluz V (himself also an ambassador, incidentally, as the government’s envoy to the Gulf Cooperation Council) seems to have taken a turn for the worse.

This happened about a week ago after Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson issued an order stopping Makati City’s office of the building official from processing or issuing certificates of occupancy for the five floors that Century Properties added to its Gramercy Residences high-rise along Kalayaan Ave.
Singson’s action was based on a complaint filed by Picar alleging that Century illegally constructed five additional floors for Gramercy.

Picar pointed out that Makati’s city building official issued an amended building permit on June 8, 2012, (allowing the additional floors) four days after Century Properties applied for it. But “the application clearly stated that the five additional floors were ‘finished’ as of June 4, 2012”—before the permit was granted—Picar said in its complaint to Singson.

Picar also claimed that “there is no indication” that Makati officials inspected the project “to ensure that it complied with the National Building Code” or that it conducted the necessary investigation to determine Century Properties’ liability for the construction of the five additional floors without any valid building permit.

Century Properties, for its part, said that its Century City Development Corp. had “adequately complied with all the requirements” of regulators and had “legally obtained the building permit and occupancy permit for the Gramercy Residences, including its five additional floors.”

Our sources in the property industry tell us that one driver of this ongoing war between Antonio and Aguiluz is the bragging rights for having the tallest building in the country.

Gramercy was originally planned to be a 65-storey residential building (back then the highest building in the country). But Antonio and Aguiluz apparently had a falling out and their joint venture to develop the former International School property in Makati soon turned into a war that went steadily from cold to hot.

Picar’s adjacent Stratford Place building was soon announced to be aiming for 74 storeys (thus having the bragging rights to being “the tallest”). Let’s just hope neither of them add too many floors (to the point of structural instability) just for the sake of bragging rights. Daxim L. Lucas