MANILA, Philippines — A development model forged in industrial estates is gaining broader industry recognition, reflecting the growing relevance of development anchored on investment, employment, and sustained economic activity.
That recognition was underscored at the 2026 PropertyGuru Philippines Property Awards, where Aboitiz Economic Estates and Aboitiz Land earned six wins, led by Best Developer (Luzon). The awards point to a broader shift in how real estate value is being defined, with productive economic activity increasingly serving as the foundation for complete communities.
Over the past years, Aboitiz Economic Estates has strengthened an industry-anchored development model that builds on Aboitiz’s broader real estate capabilities, creating the infrastructure, operating systems, and business environments needed to attract investment and sustain employment. Aboitiz Economic Estates has now been named Best Industrial Developer for six consecutive years, reflecting the depth of that experience.
But the relevance of that model extends well beyond the industrial park. As investment and employment grow, they create demand for homes, offices, education, healthcare, retail, hospitality, and other services. For Aboitiz, this has shaped a broader approach to real estate: establish a strong economic engine first, then build the ecosystem that allows businesses, people, and communities to grow around it.
“For decades, industrial estates were seen as a specialized part of real estate. What we are seeing today is that the disciplines behind them — starting with jobs, infrastructure, and real economic demand — are increasingly relevant to how complete communities should be built,” said Rafael Fernandez de Mesa, President and CEO of Aboitiz Economic Estates and Aboitiz Land. “That is what makes this recognition meaningful to us.”
From economic engine to complete community
The approach is most mature at LIMA Estate in Batangas, where three decades of industrial growth have created an economic community supporting businesses, workers, residents, students, and consumers.
Today, LIMA has evolved beyond its industrial core to include commercial, residential, education, hospitality, retail, and lifestyle uses, demonstrating how sustained economic activity can support the development of a more complete regional center.
Its commercial district, Biz Hub at LIMA Estate, was named Best Completed Mixed Use Development. Rather than developing mixed-use real estate in anticipation of future demand, Biz Hub is growing around an economy already established within LIMA. Offices, retail, hospitality, education, and services respond to the needs of the businesses and thousands of people who move through the estate every day.
The residential dimension of the model was also recognized through The Villages at LIMA Estate, which received Best Lifestyle Housing Development. Developed by Aboitiz Land, the community offers residents more than a place to live: it connects them to a wider lifestyle ecosystem that extends beyond the neighborhood gates, with convenient access to LIMA Estate’s employment centers, schools, retail destinations, dining, leisure, hospitality, and essential services. This integration allows residents to enjoy the full range of opportunities and amenities that LIMA has to offer while living closer to work, education, and everyday needs.
Taking the model to the next growth corridor
In Central Luzon, Aboitiz is applying the same development discipline at TARI Estate, named Best Industrial Estate Development.
The 384-hectare estate in Tarlac combines strategic access to the Luzon Economic Corridor with integrated infrastructure, estate services, and Aboitiz Economic Estates’ experience in developing and operating industrial communities.
Major investments from companies including Ajinomoto Philippines and Coca-Cola Europacific Aboitiz Philippines are already establishing TARI Estate’s industrial base. At full build-out, the estate is projected to support around 60,000 jobs, creating the economic foundation for a broader ecosystem to develop around it over time.
The trajectory reflects a model Aboitiz has repeatedly proven in practice: industry attracts investment, investment creates jobs, and jobs generate the demand that allows a wider community to grow. Aboitiz’s execution capability is what turns that sequence into a functioning, scalable development model — from securing anchor locators and delivering critical infrastructure to coordinating estate operations, workforce development, and the phased build-out of homes, services, and community amenities.
TARI Estate demonstrates how decades of industrial development experience can translate into speed on the ground, moving from greenfield development to an emerging industrial platform with major anchor investments in a relatively short period.
Sustainability beyond infrastructure
Aboitiz Economic Estates was also named Best Sustainable Commercial Developer, reflecting an approach to sustainability that has earned its operating portfolio 5-Star BERDE District Certification, making it the first industrial developer in the Philippines to achieve this distinction across its operating estates.
For Aboitiz, sustainability is not treated as a layer added after development. It is embedded in how estates are masterplanned, built, and operated, from energy, water, mobility, resource management, and resilient infrastructure to the human systems required to sustain economic growth. BERDE certification provides an external framework for assessing and strengthening these practices across the development lifecycle.
This includes talent sustainability: industry-linked education, workforce development, upskilling, and partnerships designed to help ensure that the skills available in a region evolve alongside the industries investing there. The opening of the Batangas State University campus at LIMA Estate further strengthens this connection by bringing higher education and industry closer together, helping prepare students for opportunities in the region’s growing economic ecosystem.
The objective is not only to attract businesses, but to create the physical and human conditions that allow them to remain competitive over the long term.
From industrial expertise to a broader development model
Taken together, the six awards mark a broader inflection point for Aboitiz real estate: a development philosophy long rooted in industrial estates is increasingly being recognized for its relevance to integrated development.
Across its economic estates, Aboitiz Economic Estates supports more than 260 locators, over 100,000 jobs, and PHP175.4 billion in investments. That scale gives the company a view of real estate that begins not with individual asset classes, but with the economic relationships between businesses, workers, infrastructure, and communities.
Aboitiz Economic Estates and Aboitiz Land received six distinctions at the 2026 PropertyGuru Philippines Property Awards:
- Best Developer (Luzon) — Aboitiz Economic Estates & Aboitiz Land
- Best Industrial Developer — Aboitiz Economic Estates
- Best Sustainable Commercial Developer — Aboitiz Economic Estates
- Best Industrial Estate Development — TARI Estate
- Best Completed Mixed Use Development — Biz Hub at LIMA Estate
- Best Lifestyle Housing Development — The Villages at LIMA Estate
For Aboitiz, the significance of the recognition goes beyond the number of awards. As economic activity expands beyond traditional urban centers, the company sees an opportunity to apply its industrial development experience to a new generation of regional growth centers.
The model starts with the economic engine: attract investment, create quality jobs, and build the infrastructure, places, and communities that allow growth to compound around them.
That is what Aboitiz Economic Estates and Aboitiz Land are advancing across Philippine real estate: bringing together investment, jobs, infrastructure, and communities in a more integrated way, so regional growth can be sustained over time.