MANILA, Philippines – You probably don’t wake up excited to go to work, but what if your office building could change that? That’s exactly what Menarco Tower in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), dubbed the country’s “healthiest” building, is trying to do.
“We were trying to solve a problem, and the problem was: How do you get people to actually want to come to work after a three-hour traffic-laden city trek?” Carmen Jimenez-Ong, chief executive officer of Menarco Development Corporation, said on Wednesday, September 18. “How do we make actually going to work a pleasurable thing?”
For Ong, the onus is on real estate developers to create liveable cities, especially with the urban landscape often prioritizing cost efficiencies over well-being.
“The built environment, which we all circulate around, either contributes to well-being or actually reduces it,” the Menarco CEO said in a roundtable discussion hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry’s Design Center of the Philippines. “So you really cannot, I think, remove the responsibility from the developer in terms of nation building, in terms of productivity, in terms of just well-being in general.”
So what exactly make this 32-storey high-rise — which from the outside seems to blend in with the rest of the business district’s towering glass skyline — so different? Rappler asked Ong to share some of the building’s highlights:
- Circulation: “Because we are sealed, we actually have MERV 13 filters to get fresh air, filter it, and then cool it to the ambient temperature that you feel so that you can feel very much alive.”
- Sunshine: “In Menarco, we have a double-glazed unitized curtain wall system. That is just a complicated way of saying that the sunshine comes in no heat. The reason is because we have an air panel in between two glass panes.”
- Water: “You can drink it straight from the tap. Our water here is better than World Health Organization standards…. We also harvest our gray water. The water that comes down is actually brought back into a tank that gets filtered, and that’s what we use to flush.”
- Fitness: “In our building, our fire [exit] staircase, it’s got natural light in it. We have a speaker so you can hear music, and with each floor, there’s an inspirational quote. It encourages walking.”
When it comes to safety, Menarco Tower is also earthquake- and storm-proof, boasting that it is “designed, engineered, and tested globally to withstand the strongest known to man.”
And to stimulate the mind, the building also has what it calls a “vertical museum” that features 39 contemporary Philippine artworks across its floors. The building’s food hall houses installations from multiple artists, including Pio Abad and Pam Yan Santos.
The result: a modern skyscraper that’s become the first WELL Certified Gold building in Southeast Asia. Menarco Tower has several other accolades to its name, being LEED Gold Certified, WELL HSR Rated, EDGE Advanced Certified, and IMMUNE Resilient Certified.
Ong admitted that constructing such a unique building with sustainable and healthy features comes with its costs, but that extra investment is well worth it in the long run.
“In terms of financial, it costs about 5% more, I would say, on top of typical construction costs. But from our experience, you recoup that in about five years from your operations because you need less energy to cool the spaces,” she told Rappler.
Menarco Tower also stands apart in a challenging office leasing environment. In the BGC area, the average vacancy rate is 11%, based on Leechiu’s Q2 2024 property report. Menarco Tower though only has a vacancy rate between 0% and 5%. And it’s home to some big names too. Facebook occupies the penthouse floor; right below is the local office of consultancy giant Boston Consulting Group.
“We have a waiting list to get into Menarco Tower. I think it’s because of the quality of how we have built it. Our tenants are very sticky,” Ong said, adding that some even expanded their offices.
‘You can actually build a healthy building’
Menarco is not your usual developer. Founded in 2014, the company is led by chair Menardo Jimenez Sr., one of the three people considered to have founded media giant GMA Network, and his youngest daughter, Ong. The BGC tower, completed in 2017, is their first project.
Perhaps being that new kid on the block is what allowed them to shed tradition and build in a better way.
“You just have to be willing,” Ong told Rappler. “You can’t change what you built. It stays with you for 50 years, sometimes even longer. You might as well make the right choices so when you wake up in the morning, you can face your kids and say, ‘I did the right thing for your generation.’”
Menarco chose not to rely solely on financial metrics in its building design, which runs counter to the approach often taken by large public companies focused primarily on their bottom line.
“I think a lot of the big developers really look to value engineer, and I think profit is really very important for them. I don’t blame them because they’re listed,” Ong said. “But in the end, their metrics are just so different. I respect that very much, and so I’m hoping that with our next projects, we show them also how it can be done in those aspects, how a refreshing point of view can be maybe more saleable, more quickly occupied.”
For instance, when building the tower, Menarco considered the carbon footprint generated from employees drinking from plastic bottles and water dispensers, which led them to invest in a water filtration system to make potable water. They also constantly monitor the building’s indoor air quality based on carbon dioxide and particulate matter levels.
“It’s developing with passion, with empathy, with care, beyond just looking at ano ba ‘yung kikitain ko (what I will earn),” she said.
Part of that advocacy is opening up the building to other developers, whom some may see as competitors, but Menarco views as partners in creating better structures for the country.
“We’ve had the Ayala Group come here when we first opened. They were so curious about what we did, and we’ve had the central bank of the Philippines come,” the Menarco CEO told Rappler. “A lot of it is advocacy. It’s saying yes to these things so more people know that you can actually build a healthy building.”
“If a little developer like us can do it, what more the bigger ones, right? Hinahamon ko lahat (I challenge everyone) to do the same.” – Rappler.com
