The Philippine Bank of Communications Tower, more commonly known as PBCom Tower, is an office skyscraper ranked officially as the tallest building in the
Philippines from 2000 until the topping-out of
The Gramercy Residences in 2012. It has a total ground to architectural top height of 259 metres (850 ft), with 52 storeys including an 8-level radio tower. It is a joint development of Filinvest
Asia Corporation (FAC) and the Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCom). The building is the home of PBCom, one of the oldest Philippine banks. The bank occupies the building's first ten floors, with a food court on the seventh floor. It is also home to a competitor bank, East
West Bank, which is based in the building's twentieth and twenty-first floors, which are controlled by Filinvest Land.
Location
The building is located at Ayala Avenue corner V.A. Rufino Street in
Makati City, right inside the Makati Central Business District. The stretch of Ayala Avenue where PBCom Tower is located also has the main branches of the following banks Quadrant Information Services Inc., Metrobank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Banco de Oro(Equitable PCI Towers IⅈEquitable Bank Tower), Export and Industry Bank. It houses international call centers such as Stream Global Services, Citibank, Convergys, HSBC HDPP, IBM Daksh, and ICT.
Amenities
The building also has banking facilities for efficient business transactions; food court with outdoor garden cafe; a business center to complement corporate operations; and a roofdeck helipad for alternate transport access and emergency evacuation.
Other aminities include:
A 100% standby generators; lightning protection and grounding systems; structured cabling system for high-speed transmission of data, video and voice communications; provision for fiber optic telecommunications system; advanced building management system; CCTV monitoring at strategic locations controlled at the central command station on a 24-hour basis; fire alarm and automatic fire sprinkler systems; dual water supply with water treatment facility; underground and overhead water reservoir; 2 individually controlled Air Handling Units per floor with alloted air condition load for after-office use; a communications tower; voice and smoke evacuation systems; and a gondola system for building exterior maintenance.
The building is equipped with 17 high-speed tower lifts in 3 zones lift-group to ensure minimum waiting time; 4 shuttle lifts for parking and amenity floors; and 1 service elevator for all floors. The building's parking facilities have a secure and integrated multi-level design with paging system and a drivers’ lounge. The PBCom Tower has been designated by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) as one of only two certified Information Technology (IT) buildings in the country. IT companies occupying the PBCom Tower will enjoy special tax incentives and other privileges from the government.
