Ortigas Center is Metro Manila's second most important Philippine financial district-cum-central business district after the Makati Financial and Central Business District in Makati City. With an area of at least 100 hectares, the district is located at the boundaries of Pasig City, Mandaluyong City, and Quezon City. It is governed by Ortigas Center Association, Inc.
Ortigas Center is home to many shopping malls, office and condominium skyscrapers and other building complexes, and nightlife bars and restaurants. These include the St. Francis Square, the Asian Development Bank compound, the Oakwood Premier serviced apartments and a Shangri-La hotel. It is also the headquarters of San Miguel Corporation, Jollibee Foods Corporation, the Philippine branch of HSBC, and Robinsons Galleria. It also home to the Banco de Oro main office owned by mall taipan Henry Sy, Sr. SM Megamall, the largest mall in the country prior to the completion of the SM Mall of Asia, is also in the Center along EDSA, as is the The Medical City, one of the three hospitals in the country accredited by the Joint Commission on International Accreditation.[1]
Ortigas Center is surrounded by the streets of EDSA to the west, Ortigas Avenue to the north, Meralco Avenue to the east, and Shaw Boulevard to the south.
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Ortigas Center began as the 4,033-hectare "Hacienda de Mandaloyon", an estate from the Augustinian Order. In the following years, there were several changes of partners. Then, on July 10, 1931, the company was incorporated “Ortigas, Madrigal y cia., S. en C.” as a limited partnership by shares (sociedad comanditaria por acciones). The parties to the partnership were Francisco Ortigas (Don Paco), Vicente Madrigal, B.C.M. Johnston, Fulgencio Borromeo, Clyde A. Dewitt and Manuel L. Quezon.
When Ortigas & Company acquired the estate, it was a virtual wasteland. The vision of the management, headed by Atty. Francisco Ortigas, Jr., who was President and Chairman at that time, turned it into a progressive industrial, commercial, and residential urban complex.[2]
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