8990 Holdings Inc. setting up a training school

8990 Holdings Inc. CEO Januario Jesus "JJ" Atencio photo courtesy of CEO Magasine

Property developer  8990 Holdings Inc.  plans to set up a skills training center for construction workers.

Januario Jesus Atencio, 8990 president, said the “innovation center”  will be launched next year.

“There is a building boom in the provinces, not just in Metro Manila. You see this in Davao, in Iloilo, in Cebu. The competition for skilled labor is tight,” said Atencio.

“It’s going to be a center for training, for education, for new ideas,” Atencio said.

Atencio said 8990 is considering three sites for the center which he plans to be accredited by the  Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) in  training four skills --- masonry, carpentry, welding and crane operation.

“I can capture  high school graduates who have (opted) not to pursue traditional bachelor’s (degrees) right away. I can train them for one or two years,” Atencio said.

“This way, we get to train new people our way,” he added.

Atencio said  because of the high demand for skilled workers, the construction industry tends to hire just anyone with neither training nor enough experience, affecting  the quality of their work.

The company’s initiative is  similar to a program of the  Philippine Contractors Association (PCA) which seeks to improve the construction sector’s labor pool.

Manolito Madrasto, PCA executive director, earlier said the PCA is working for the institutionalization of skills training for laborers, piloting skills training centers run by PCA members that will train workers on both the basic and advanced knowledge of the construction industry.

Madrasto earlier said the group is working with the government to allow level three-national competency (NC3) certified individuals to be project contractors as a new step for highly-skilled individuals that have mastered the NC3 level.


source: Malaya / Business News

8990 Holdings plans to launch 21% more housing units in 2015

DAVAO CITY, Davao
— Mass housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc. is planning to launch 8 new residential projects this year amounting to 14,010 condominium units and house and lot packages, 21 percent more than the 11,574 units launched in 2014.

8990 President JJ Atencio

In a presentation, 8990 President Januario Jesus Atencio said three projects, consisting of 5,380 units, will be residential condominium developments, while 5 developments or 8,630 units will be from its traditional horizontal projects.

In contrast, 8990 launched 12 projects last year consisting of only two condominium developments with 3,948 units while the 10 horizontal projects amounted to 7,626 house and lot packages.

Atencio said their vertical projects this year will include Urban Deca Homes Muntinlupa which will be launched in April. It will be a medium rise building developed over a 1.8 hectare lot with 3,240 units.

The firm will then launch in June the Urban Deca Homes Quirino which will be another MRB to be developed on a 6,000 square meter lot in Davao City. To be launched in December is the high-rise Urban Tower Yakal in Makati which will have 1,600 units on a 1,000 square meter lot.

For its horizontal projects, 8990 will launch three developments in January: Deca Homes on a 4-hectare property in Cavite with 585 units, Deca Homes Catalunan Grande with 720 units over 11.7 hectares in Davao, and Deca Homes San Lorenzo which is a 25 hectare project with 3,125 units also in Davao.

In October, 8990 will launch the 31.2 hectare Deca Homes San Mateo in Rizal with 3,600 units while Deca Homes Baywalk Talisay 3 in Cebu will be launched in December. It will have 600 units developed on a 5 hectare property.

Last year, the firm’s vertical projects consisted of Urban Deca Tower EDSA in Mandaluyong and Urban Deca Homes Tisa in Cebu. Its horizontal projects were launched in Baywalk Talisay, Cebu; Guadalupe, Cebu; Marseilles, Cavite; two projects in Angeles City, Pampanga; two in Iloilo; and three projects in Davao City.

Atencio said 8990 is planning to boost its engineering capacity by almost 50 percent to 15,000 units a year from the current 10,500 units.

He said “that’s our habit. We have a tendency to accelerate. We have to make sure we have enough capacity so we need to expand our engineering.”

Atencio noted that “I’ve already increased capacity by 33 percent in the third quarter (2014) from 8,000 units to 10,500 units. I need to increase to 15,000 units to be safe.”

He added that the firm is targeting to raise capacity to 15,000 units within the first quarter of 2015. “If not, at least I’m on my way,” Atencio said.

source: Manila Bulletin | Business News

Published on January 3, 2015
By: James Loyola