The Makati Central Business District (Makati CBD) is a privately owned financial and central business district in the Philippines located in the heart of Makati in Metro Manila. It is politically and administratively known as "Central Cluster" in the West District of Makati. It is different from the Makati civic center known as "Makati Poblacion" which is situated at the northeast portion of the district. It is bounded by EDSA, Amorsolo Street, Ayala Avenue, Gil Puyat Avenue, Osmeña Highway, South Luzon Expressway, Metro Manila Skyway, Zobel Roxas Street, Ocampo Street, Metropolitan Avenue, Nicanor Garcia Street, Kalayaan Avenue, Makati Avenue, Anza Street, Polaris Street, Orion Street, Mercedes Street, Amapola Street and Estrella Street. The whole district occupies the barangays of San Antonio, San Lorenzo, Bel-Air, and Urdaneta.
Many of the skyscrapers in Metro Manila are in this area. The business district is also considered one of the most vibrant commercial districts in Southeast Asia. It contains the Ayala Center, which is one of the region's biggest shopping centers.
The financial district is managed by two groups—the Makati Commercial Estates Association (MaCEA) and the Ayala Property Management Corporation (APMC).
History
Pre-war period Downtown Makati started out as part of the wide municipality of Santa Ana de Sapa (part of the City of Manila today as the District of Sta. Ana) and became a town of its own in 1670, then as San Pedro de Macati in honor of its patron, Saint Peter.
In 1851, Don José Bonifacio Roxas (a member of the Ayala-Roxas family) purchased the farm estate of "Hacienda San Pedro de Macati" from the Jesuits for 52,800 pesos. The western portion of the estate is now what is called the downtown. Since then, Makati and its development remain close to the Zobel de Ayala family.
In 1901, the Americans declared the whole area south of the Pasig River, including the whole Hacienda San Pedro de Macati (downtown), down to Alabang in the present-day Muntinlupa, a US military reservation; thus establishing Fort McKinley, which is now known as Fort Bonifacio. That same year, the whole town, with a population of 25,000, was incorporated from the then Province of Manila to the new province of Rizal with Marcelino Magsaysay serving as the town president.
In the 1930s, the first airport in Luzon island, Nielson Field, opened in what is now the Ayala Triangle within the hacienda. The airport was officially inaugurated in 1938, and Philippine Airlines began its operations there in 1941.
The tracks of what is now the Philippine National Railways reached the town very early in the decade, which is located at the western portion of the downtown at present, with three stations serving commuters and residents.
Postwar period After the destruction of World War II that brought upon Makati, the town grew rapidly, and real estate values boomed. As Nielson Field closed down in 1948, the plan was set for the building of the central business district. The first centrally planned communities from the Ayalas' farm estate were established in the 1950s. Some of the gated communities (Urdaneta, San Lorenzo, San Antonio, and Bel-Air Villages) that were developed grew into commercial areas and office parks.
The multiple-lane Ayala Avenue was completed in 1958, which was once part of the runway of the first commercial airport in the country, Nielson Airport. The downtown was developed into high density residential and commercial areas according to specific zoning regulations.
In the early 1960s, Ayala y Cía commissioned some of the first high-rise buildings along Ayala Avenue from one of the country's best known architects, Leandro V. Locsin.
The Makati Stock Exchange (MkSE) was established on May 27, 1963, with its trading area located along Ayala Avenue in downtown. Although both the MSE (Manila Stock Exchange) and the MkSE traded the same stocks of the same companies, the bourses were separate stock exchanges for nearly 30 years until December 23, 1992, when both exchanges were unified to become the present-day Philippine Stock Exchange.
Downtown Makati has been the financial capital of the Philippines since the late 1960s, owing to congestion, relative lack of expansion area, higher land prices and taxes, and urban decay in Manila. Makati Commercial Center was built in the 1960s. The downtown district rapidly developed during the terms of town mayors Maximo Estrella and Jose Luciano, who encouraged the massive development of the town and welcomed foreign and local investors to what was tagged the nation's number one municipality at that time.
Martial Law era
In September 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos imposed Martial law in the Philippines. The formal announcement of the proclamation was made in the evening of September 23. Economic activity in the downtown was still ongoing, with Nemesio Yabut as town mayor, preparing the district for Makati's full integration as part of the new region of Metro Manila (officially the National Capital Region) and as a founding member of the Metropolitan Manila Commission, which it achieved with the commission's formal establishment on November 7, 1975, ending Makati's many years as a town under Rizal Province.
Following the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in 1983, the downtown area was one of the many places of rallies and mass demonstrations that were the basis of the People Power Revolution against the dictatorship of then-President Marcos in 1986. It was that decade that witnessed the emergence of a so-called moderate opposition, with the Makati Business Club, against Marcos' ailing authoritarian regime. Established in 1980, the MBC, a union of executives from business entities operating in the district, was then a voice of opposition to the dictatorship, and it was one of the leading organizers of what was then dubbed the Confetti Revolution, so-named due to the yellow confetti from torn phone directories thrown along Ayala Avenue from the buildings in the wide road, whenever the rallies would happen.
Late 1980s After the death of Mayor Nemesio Yabut during the People Power Revolution, Corazon Aquino, Ninoy's widow and the country's first female president, appointed Jejomar Binay as the acting mayor of the town of Makati and was elected mayor in 1988. Having spent his childhood in the municipality and himself a veteran of the Confetti Revolution and of the opposition activities during the Marcos administration, his first term bore witness to the events of the coup d'état attempt in December 1989, which hit the district directly.
1990s The country's first skyscrapers started to rise in the business district, including the Pacific Star Building, The Peak Tower, Pacific Plaza, and the Rufino Pacific Tower.
Republic Act 7854, passed by Congress in late December 1994 and signed into law by President Fidel V. Ramos on January 2, 1995, officially established the City of Makati. On February 4, 1995, the character of the new city was ratified in a plebiscite with 91% of voters in favor of cityhood. The whole people of Makati especially the businessmen in downtown celebrated the remarkable event.
21st century
In the early 2000s, the downtown was a primary target of political rallies and terrorist attacks.
On May 17, 2000, at 5:02 p.m., Glorietta inside Ayala Center was bombed injuring 12 persons, mostly teenagers. According to local authorities, the homemade bomb was placed in front of a toilet beside a video arcade. It was said to be the precursor to the May 21, 2000 SM Megamall bombing and the December 30, 2000 Rizal Day bombings.
From August 2000 to January 2001, a wave of protests against the former president Joseph Estrada occurred in the district. The anti-Estrada protests in Makati focused on Ayala Avenue, which cuts from EDSA to Buendia (now Gil Puyat Avenue).
In 2003, The Oakwood mutiny took place in the Oakwood Premier (now Ascott Makati), within the Glorietta complex, and on 2007, the Manila Peninsula siege took place at The Peninsula Manila. Both happened at the Makati CBD to call for former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down.
The 2007 Glorietta explosion ripped through Glorietta 2 on October 19, 2007. The death toll in the explosion was 11, with 120 injured. Despite conflicting reports, it was concluded that the explosion was caused by a faulty liquefied petroleum gas tank located in a Chinese restaurant.
In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement protesting economic inequality and the power of United States financial institutions spread from New York City to other parts of the world, including the Philippines. The movement's supporters' first action was held on October 14, when protesters marched in Makati City from the Ninoy Aquino monument on Ayala Avenue to the American Chamber of Commerce. The movement here in the country is called "Occupy Philippines", which had other protests held at the US Embassy and Rizal Park in Manila after the protest in Makati.
In 2014, the Makati Tourism Foundation and Makati city government started a tourism campaign called "Make it Happen, Make it Makati", which promotes tourism mainly in the business district.
Divisions
The Makati Central Business District is situated within four barangays of Makati.
Barangay Bel-Air
Barangay Bel-Air is an affluent enclave and the richest barangay in the Philippines located in the heart of Makati Central Business District, established in the early 1950s. It has a total land area of , the third largest among the posh villages in Makati City. The barangay includes Ayala North, Buendia Area, Ayala Triangle, Salcedo Village and Bel-Air Village. The predominant land use of this tobacco pipe-shaped barangay is residential and commercial. It boasts commercial buildings and establishments.
Bel-Air Village is the third subdivision developed by Ayala. The development, which started in 1957, was undertaken in four phases. The village boundaries are clockwise, Estrella Street, EDSA, Jupiter Street, Nicanor Garcia (Reposo) Street, Kalayaan Avenue, Neptune Street, Makati Avenue, Anza Street, Polaris Street, Mercedes Street, Amapola Street, back to Estrella. The total land area of Bel-Air Village is , of which is subdivided into 950 residential lots.
Ayala Triangle is a sub-district of Downtown Makati, comprising the land between Ayala Avenue, Makati Avenue and Paseo de Roxas. The Ayala Triangle Gardens is Makati's Central Park, which was the only urban oasis in Makati at the heart of the central business district, will be developed into mixed commercial and residential space. This triangular block also houses the Makati Stock Exchange, the Ayala Tower One and the Filipinas Heritage Library, built on the site of the historic Nielson Tower.
Salcedo Village is a business park developed by Ayala Corporation located in Makati Central Business District. It is named after the de Salcedo brothers - Juan and Felipe - who are both Spanish conquistadors who were part of the Legazpi's expedition. It is bounded by Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati Avenue, Paseo de Roxas, and Ayala Avenue. It is home to the country's notable office skyscrapers like the PBCom Tower and GT International Tower, as well as the Salcedo Community Market at Salcedo Park.
Ayala North is an informal district bounded by the streets of Gil Puyat Avenue, Ayala Avenue Extension, Kamagong Street, Ecoville Street, Metropolitan Avenue and Nicanor Garcia Street. It is the home of Alphaland Makati Place, The Lerato, The Columns Ayala Avenue, Makati Life Medical Center, Altaire, BIR Regional Office Building, The Zone Sports Center and FEU Makati Campus.