Before the First Brick: Why Parkville is Redefining the Lot-Buying Experience
• 4 min. read
Most residential developments sell a promise: "Imagine what life could look like once your home is built." But what if a community could give you that feeling—of space, of grounding, of belonging—before the first wall goes up?
Welcome to Parkville.
Nestled in one of Bacolod’s fastest-growing areas, Parkville is SMDC’s first lots-only development in the Visayas. At first glance, it’s everything you would expect of a large-scale, masterplanned village: 52 hectares of land, located just five minutes from the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Economic Highway, with future-ready infrastructure and development on the horizon. It is also the only residential project in Bacolod that offers the city’s biggest open space, along with rare, unobstructed views of Mt. Madalagan—a living backdrop to the life envisioned here.
But walk through the gates, and you’ll notice something different.
More than just a blank canvas waiting to be filled, Parkville’s parks and open spaces are already taking root—designed with purpose, crafted with care, and ready to grow with its future residents.
At the heart of Parkville are eight purpose-driven parks taking shape. There’s Orchard Park, where fruit-bearing trees line the path and residents will soon be able to pick or plant produce. A shaded walking trail called Greenscape Park. A sports field. A dog park. Gardens filled with herbs and flowering shrubs. Quiet corners for sitting still.
They’re not placeholders. They’re the heartbeat of a community that’s been intentionally designed to feel real, long before homes are constructed.
“We designed Parkville to feel real from the start. Even before homes rise, you can already imagine yourself moving through spaces with purpose—parks you’ll return to, paths you’ll know by heart. That’s how belonging begins—not when the keys are handed over, but when the land already feels like it’s yours,” said Jessica Sy, Vice President and Head of Design, Innovation & Strategy at SMDC.
That emotional connection is no accident. Parkville is located near the site of the former Sta. Fe Resort—a name many Bacolodnons will remember. While the resort no longer operates, SMDC plans to design this area as a community facility open to the public, integrating elements of its landscape into the broader vision of Parkville and honoring its place in the city’s memory.
And that balance—between what was and what will be—is what gives Parkville its rhythm.
It’s also what separates it from most real estate projects, which often market land as a transaction, not a transition. Parkville treats it differently. Here, you don’t wait for your home to be built to start feeling connected.
The community’s spirit is already taking shape, designed with your movement, your rest, your pets, your morning walks, and your need for space and slowness in mind.
Of course, Parkville also offers what future residents need—an Olympic-sized pool, a clubhouse by international landscape firm Plat Studio, a daycare, co-working lounges, and shophouse lots for entrepreneurs.
But what it offers first is perhaps more valuable: room to breathe, before the walls come up.
In a time when many developments are built fast and tight, Parkville chooses to grow gently—with space, memory, and intention at its core.
So if you’ve been searching not just for a place to build—but a place to begin—Parkville might be the only community where life doesn’t start after construction.
It starts the moment you step in.
To learn more about Parkville or to schedule a site visit, call (02) 8858-0300.