BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Property giant Megaworld is constructing The Upper East House, a three-level township showroom that will be designed to pay tribute to the historic institution that used to occupy the township’s current location, the Bacolod-Murcia Milling Company (BMMC), which is another iconic addition to its 34-hectare The Upper East Township in Bacolod City.
The expansive township showroom will occupy a lot more than half a hectare in size along Upper East Avenue, just within the curated park beside the soon-to-open McDonald’s Upper East. Its vintage look takes inspiration from the elegant and sophisticated design of the BMMC’s ‘white mansion’, an old bahay na bato house that used to be inside the former sugar milling complex, according to Jennifer Palmares Fong, Megaworld Visayas vice president for sales and marketing.
Fong disclosed that the Upper East House will feature the retrofitted and refurbished century-old BMMC Train that used to be the main mode of transport to deliver sugarcane during the early days of the sugar mill.
A gallery featuring memorabilia from the historic sugar mill will also be the main highlight of The Upper East House, she added.
It is being targeted to be opened to the public by the fourth quarter of next year, Fong said during a press conference in Bacolod City, where she was also joined by Harold Brian Geronimo, Megaworld Vice President and Head of Public Relations as well as Media Affairs.
“We take pride in The Upper East bearing a part of the legacy of its location as the former site of the Bacolod-Murcia Milling Company, an institution that played a pivotal role in jumpstarting economic progress in Bacolod City. Today, we continue to honor this legacy as we develop this historic site as Bacolod City’s iconic central business district and once again become a catalyst of progress in this part of the region,” she said.
Among the structure’s most prominent design features include the silong, which was used in the past for storage and to raise farm animals, and the tukod, a long piece of wood used to hold open, swing-out windows.
Guests and visitors will be welcomed to a spacious veranda and outdoor lounge with water feature fronting the eight-lane Upper East Avenue.
The interior walls will be adorned with decorative wooden panels, while calados (carved wooden screens) and cartouches (decorative ceiling panels) will hang from the ceiling as accents and to help circulate air across rooms, respectively.
The reception walls and partitions will be adorned with solihiya (woven rattan strands), while patterned wooden planks, tiles, and stones will be used across the entire space to radiate retro charm.
As a showroom, The Upper East House will feature model units of the township’s residential developments and sales offices complete with facilities.
Meanwhile, the upper ground floor will also have spaces for retail shops and cafes.
Continuing its rise as the city’s first master-planned mixed-use community, The Upper East will soon have its own Megaworld Lifestyle Mall, commercial parks, hotel, church, and other institutional and recreational facilities, Fong said.
Megaworld recently announced that Landers Superstore will open its first superstore in Western Visayas inside the township next year.*
