Concessionaire reassures investors on opportunities in Festac Phase 2 devt
New Festac Property Development Company Limited (NFPDCL), the concessionaire on the development of the Festac Phase 2 Estate in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, has reassured investors that work is in progress on the estate, adding that the estate continues to hold compelling opportunities and prospects of fabulous returns on investment.
The concessionaire gave this reassurance recently when a presidential project monitoring team visited for an on-the-spot assessment of progress of work on the estate sitting on1,126 hectares of land.
The estate, whose current development involves sand filling and land reclamation, is the second phase of the large settlement known as Festac Town which sits on a massive land mass measuring 2,024 hectares. The first phase was developed in 1977 and served as home for visitors to the second World Black Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) which Nigeria hosted that year.
The presidential project monitoring team which was led on the visit by its director, Sandra Fadeyi, held a meeting with the officials of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) led by its General Manager, David Kpue, and the concessionaire with their consultants led by the managing director, Goody Egbuji.
The concessionaire, at the meeting, made a visual presentation of the project, detailing all aspects of the project, including already completed site investigation studies and preliminary works , the status of the ongoing reclamation work and some legal challenges that were slowing the pace of the project.
The meeting was followed by a tour of the project site for an on-the-spot assessment of work by the team which frowned at cases of encroachment and illegal possession with massive structures on the estate.
The team was informed that the illegal structures built without the necessary approval from FHA have completely blocked some access routes, causing destruction to the original masterplan of Festac Town.
Festac Phase 2 Estate, it would be recalled, was concessioned to NFPDCL in September 2014 under a 30-year build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) lease agreement and by that agreement, NFPDCL is undertaking land reclamation, sand filling, infrastructural development, marketing and sale of the over 7,000 plots of land to be created from the reclaimed land, and Federal Government’s earnings from this project is estimated at N25.765 billion as premium and an additional N150 million ground rent annually for the 30 years of the concession.
Expectation is that this development will transform Festac Town into a modern city and yield great benefits both in the infrastructural and socio economic development of Lagos. The serviced plots to be realized through the concession will be complemented with green areas, off street parking, power supply, petrol stations, shopping malls, hospitals, hospitality centres, well laid roads, water works, street lights, sewage disposal systems, and all necessary support infrastructure.
The development of these infrastructure would, automatically, make this estate an investment haven which is why, according to the concessionaire, the estate has seen unprecedented and strong interest from savvy investors who see beyond today in their investment decisions.
According to them, Festac Phase 2 is the destination for any investor, explaining that given its excellent location and the large population of Festac Phase 1 , there is a ready market for any form of investment including schools, shopping malls, banks, eateries, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Chuka Uroko