The construction of the building, which cost 6 billion pesos, began in 1995, but was delayed due to the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. It was opened in 2000, and was occupied gradually by the network in the following years, expanding the area of its business operations. It is a PEZA Special Economic Zone, designated as an IT center.[3] It is named in honor of Eugenio Lopez Jr., the chairman emeritus of ABS-CBN. The dedication of the building was held on November 4, 2010, in a ceremony that was attended by then-Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.[4]
In 2013, the whole center became one of the first 4G LTE zone in the country after Globe and Sun Cellular upgraded their respective transmitters inside the complex.
On February 27, 2025, ABS-CBN announced in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that it would retain the ELJ Communications Center along with another facility in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan following a sale of most the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center's property to Ayala Land.[5][6] On August 20, 2025, ABS-CBN and Ayala Land have signed the deeds of absolute sale for the purchase of the sold properties.[7]
Structure
The ELJ Communications Center viewed within the larger ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center with the latter soon to be demolished in 2026.
ELJ Communications Center occupies fourteen thousand (14,000) square meters of land area.[8] The building has a gross floor area of 101,608.32 square meters; almost seventy thousand (70,000) square meters of office space and over thirty thousand (30,000) square meters of parking space. The building was originally part of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center from 2000 until its demolition in 2026.[9]
Exterior
The building is composed of two interconnecting building structures. These are the three thousand square meter (3,000), fifteen-storey and the two thousand square meter (2,000), twelve-storey buildings joint together by steel and glass structures. The exterior of a building has a garden. At the left and right side of the building originally had the 1999 ABS-CBN logo that was barely visible and blended to its color until 2013 before it was replaced with the 2013 one with grey metallic composition and red, green, blue, and black color for the symbol that illuminates at night on late 2014. At the rooftop is a wind vane and a roof deck helipad painted in green with the 2013 ABS-CBN text. However, the building with the 1999 logo was later remade in 2025 as a display located inside the network compound.
Interior
The ground floor level is a mixed-use commercial area called The Loop and Tower Entrance, which is home to several retail shops, dining outlets, and a studio called The Loop Studio which was used by the now defunct morning news and talk show Umagang Kay Ganda. A studio gallery (known as such from the leftmost exterior entrance), lobby, and the main reception area are also located on its ground floor. Located on its second floor are the offices of Star Cinema and ABS-CBN's human resources division, dressing and rehearsal rooms, and the hallway leading to its studios and technical rooms.
The divisions and subsidiaries' offices are on the third to twelfth floors. ABS-CBN Post Production unit, iPost, is on the third floor, while its legal department, corporate communications, licensing, and media asset management (Big Dipper) are located on the fourth floor. ABS-CBN Sports, tax accounting, and human resources could be visited at the fifth floor. Sky Cable is on the sixth floor. The eighth floor is home to their Information Technology division, Creative Programs, and ABS-CBN Publishing, while ABS-CBN Global and Digital Media Division could be found on the ninth floor. ABS-CBN's wholly owned subsidiary, The Big Dipper Digital Content & Design, Inc. (Big Dipper), with offices located on the center's fourth floor, is an approved economic zone enterprise of PEZA, making it eligible for tax holiday and other incentives.[10] In 2010, the company has availed an income tax holiday incentives of 472 million pesos. In 2011 and 2012, the company has availed 188 million and 204 million pesos respectively.[11] In 2014, PEZA approved the application of Big Dipper for the entitlement of the Pioneer Status.
The thirteenth floor houses the conference rooms, while the dining restaurant and events room, formerly known as Restaurant 9501 before the shutdown of ABS-CBN's free-to-air operations in 2020, is located on the fourteenth floor of the building. Meanwhile, company and network management offices are located on the building's fifteenth floor. ABS-CBN Film Archives, which holds the largest film collection in the country occupies one of the floors of the building’s three level basement which also serves as the building’s parking area.
There are three ultra modern television studios at the back of the ELJ Communications Center that are part of the overall ABS-CBN Studios consisting of 10 studios. It is actually a large soundstage that is directly connected to the back of the ELJ Communications Center. It is further divided into three smaller studios. Studio 10, the largest studio of ABS-CBN with a floor area of one thousand (1,000) square meters, is used by the musical variety show ASAP as well as a number of reality shows and television specials. Studio 9, is used by the morning talk show, Magandang Buhay and Studio 8 is a temporary studio set-up, where the props and set decorations are dismantled after the show. It is currently being used by various shows. There is also an elephant door that leads to the soon to be demolished ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center. These will only be the remaining studios of ABS-CBN upon the demolition of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center in 2026.
At the front of the building, however, are the offices of ABS-CBN Foundation consisting of Bantay Bata 163, Bantay Kalikasan, and Sagip Kapamilya known as Gina Lopez Building.
The ABS-CBN Foundation Building (now renamed Gina Lopez Building since 2020).[12]
The east wing of the center
The glass structure connecting the superstructure and substructure.
The glass structure connecting the superstructure and Studio Annex.
The ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center as viewed from the rooftop of the main building of ABS-CBN. ELJ Communications Center (left) and Millennium Transmitter (right).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
