Makati City is considered as the Philippines’ version of New York’s Wall Street and Los Angeles’ Beverly Hills by being the country’s most major financial, commercial, and economic hub. Many global businesses have chosen and continue to choose to headquarter on this side of Metro Manila.
Here are a few of the places that Makati City takes pride in, and ones that can be visited with just a 50-peso cab ride:
PBCOM Tower, the tallest structure in Makati. This edifice towers at 848 feet (55 levels), making it as 91st among the world’s 200 tallest buildings as reported by the Emporis Standards Committee (ESC). The PBCOM Tower, located on Ayala Avenue, is home to the Philippine Bank of Communications, which occupies the first ten floors, and other burgeoning businesses such as the East-West Bank, Citibank, Convergys, Etelecare, HSBC HDPP, IBM Daksh and ICT. This Makati City skyscraper has a facade that combines function and a hint of elegance through interplay of glass, natural stone, and metal. It was designed by the international architects of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
Ayala Triangle - Tower One: the Symbolic Center Piece of Makati’s CBD. This 35-storey building in the heart of Makati City’s Central Business District was built in 1997 and serves as the physical and symbolic piece of the entire area, as it is where the Ayala Corporation and the Philippine Stock Exchange are headquartered. The corporate tower is modern in its style through the fusion of materials like concrete, glass, and steel, and measures exactly 525 feet above the city grounds.
RCBC Plaza: the Twin Towers of Power at the end of Ayala Avenue. Another powerful symbol of commerce in Makati City is the RCBC Plaza on Ayala Avenue cor. Sen. Gil J. Puyat Avenue (Buendia). The Yuchengco Tower - housing the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation as well as the De La Salle University Professional Schools Inc. - has 46 levels, while its twin, Tower Two, has 41. RCBC Plaza has also enticed the embassies of Australia, Canada, and South Africa, as well as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), to hold office in its contemporary and stylish interior.
RCBC Plaza became the first IT Zone in Makati City as declared by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), which makes it all the more a tantalizing attraction for foreign investors to hold computer and knowledge-based operations in. This Makati City edifice also takes pride in housing the Yuchengco Museum, the 450-seater Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, a 200-seater chapel, banking chambers, a VIP lounge, an 886-seater single-kitchen operation food court including a bar and bistro, seven levels of basement parking, a business center, a gym and health spa, and an open-air courtyard.
The Greenbelt Malls: Makati’s Lifestyle Mecca. A tour of Makati is incomplete without a visit to the 27,871-square meter series of indoor and outdoor retail, dining, and entertainment centers that is Greenbelt. This complex is owned by Ayala Land Incorporated and utilizes an unconventional design that creates a refreshingly unique experience for its patrons.
Amidst Greenbelt’s manicured gardens is the Roman Catholic Chapel of Nino de Paz that is surrounded by a lagoon. Other main attractions of Greenbelt include five high-end cinemas, the party strip on Greenbelt 2, and the luxurious shopping hallways of Greenbelt 4.
The Oxford Suites: A Makati Hotel for a New Way of Living. Riding on the Los Angeles’ feel of the city, The Oxford Suites is a Makati Hotel that offers a new way of living. This 27-storey property has three tastefully-appointed accommodation types: the Executive, Deluxe, and the Junior Suite. At very affordable rates, Guests at this Hotel in Makati are provided with air-conditioned rooms that also include IDD/NDD telephone lines, satellite-direct TV sets, in-room safety deposit boxes, coffee/tea-making facilities, mini-bars, hairdryers, shower with bathtubs and Internet-ready ports.
The Oxford Suites is also ideal for business travelers with features such as a coffee shop, a health and recreational facility (including state-of-the-art gym equipments and masseurs on call), room service, airport transfers, a completely-functional business center, and a 12-seater conference room.
Situated near Makati and Kalayaan Avenues, The Oxford Suites is just minutes away from the commercial and shopping complexes in Makati. For more information on this Makati Hotel, you may visit their website at www.oxfordsuites-makati.com.