The Gotianun family of Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) would take annual treks to California in the 90s and the vast residential and commercial real estate landscape in Silicon Valley made them dream of a world-class office complex to serve as the choice address for technology companies back home.

Today, this dream lives on in Northgate Cyberzone in Filinvest City, Alabang—one of the first Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) accredited IT Parks in the Philippines. FLI subsidiary Cyberzone Properties Inc. (CPI) manages the 18.7-hectare property and is the biggest provider of office spaces in South Metro Manila.

“Northgate was patterned after the sprawling campus offices of many start-ups and global technology firms. From my trips, I saw the large floor plate and side core office buildings which we introduced to the Philippines and has since become the industry standard,” said FLI President Josephine Gotianun-Yap. North Cyberzone is now a thriving community of business-process outsourcing (BPO) companies and technology providers.

Thanks to the family’s foresight, FLI made a deliberate strategy to focus on the office segment of the property market. “We are one of the pioneers in this segment, and we grew with the BPO industry since its infancy. It’s an industry that has brought employment to over a million Filipinos and a key driver to our country’s GDP,” said Gotianun-Yap.