From Town To Country: Tomas Lorenzo Believes True Success is Measured by Improving Lives

On a recent trip to South Africa, Tomas Lorenzo discovered that the hotel’s rooftop garden was in a cage to keep the herbs safe from meandering giraffes. “Every property is unique in the sense that it has to adapt to its environment,” says Lorenzo, CEO of Torre Lorenzo Development Corporation (TLDC).

“When I go abroad, I don’t just enjoy a hotel or a resort like a regular guest. I ask the management to show me, if they allow me, everything behind the scenes, the back of house. I ask to see their kitchens, their laundry room, their sewage treatment plant. I’ll see everything that the guests don’t see because it interests me more,” says Lorenzo, a hotelier himself, counting Dusit D2 Davao and Dusit Thani Residence in Davao City, as well as Dusit Thani Lubi Plantation Resort in Davao de Oro, as part of TLDC’s hospitality portfolio.

Lorenzo says his brain is always “on” when he’s on vacation, or even when he’s taking a break with a swim, or a run. Except on that recent trip to Africa, when his wife, Milette, signed him up for a half marathon, as a training run in preparation for the Chicago Marathon two weeks later.

That was probably the one holiday run when Lorenzo’s brain went on a break from work. The run was held in Kruger National Park led by two men with rifles on bicycles, with the 20 participants running behind in a pack, followed by a jeep with more guns.

Nineteen of the racers were locals, used to running trails in the bush. And then there was Lorenzo.

“I do road events, not trails. So I had to learn on the fly how to run on uneven earth, and sideways and all this time trying to run and keep up with 19 very fit people, very tall people,” says Lorenzo. “With all the rocks and the branches, and knowing that there are hyenas, lions, and all that all around us.”

Just past the starting line, the group stopped for a leopard crossing. At rest stops by the water, they were warned to beware of hippos and crocodiles.

And then there were the vultures circling overhead.

“I thought, wow, vultures! Then I realized that vultures meant there was something that got killed. And then I saw this pack of hyenas devouring this carcass of something…” says Lorenzo.

“It was very primal, really. I’d never run so fast in my life. I was running for my life,” says Lorenzo. “My big fears were, ‘What if I trip? What if I slip? What if I’m left behind? And if all three happen, I’m basically going to be eaten by whatever animal sees me, right?’”

Fortunately, Lorenzo lived to tell the tale, and today he’s on a catamaran cutting through languid waters heading to Dusit Thani Lubi, which used to be a coconut plantation when the Lorenzo family purchased it close to four decades ago.

Now it’s a luxuryLuxuryA lifestyle defined by exceptional quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity, and sophistication, encompassing the finest products, services, and experiences that represent the highest standards of refinement and excellence.Go to Luxury Glossary tropical oasis, styled like a 1920s South Pacific coconut plantation, with 84 rooms; among them, 18 two-bedroom villas.

Lorenzo is in work mode again, accompanied by a coterie of executives, who brief him on various issues. It’s storming in Manila, but the sun is out in full force in Davao de Oro.

“There are no typhoons in Mindanao. Maybe one every 30 years,” Lorenzo says. “But when it’s rainy season, it can rain really, really hard, so we had to adapt our drainage systems and maintenance programs.”

Lorenzo says they had to adapt practically everything about Lubi resort to the environment. The island was completely off the grid—no power, no running water, no transport—when Lorenzo decided to develop it into a resort, and so from Day One, the group considered sustainability options.

“We never called it sustainability. It was just the right thing to do, and it saved money. We just said, we have to do this correctly,” says Lorenzo.

Lubi’s roads are made of white sand, so they can capture rainwater and replenish the island’s aquifers, a primary source of drinking water on the island. The resort’s reverse osmosis plant purifies the water.

The resort is powered by clean and renewable solar energy, with its 756-unit solar farm that has an output of 415.8 kWp. The energy generated will reduce carbon emissions by 251 metric tons annually.

Meanwhile, the heat energy produced by the air conditioning units is used to heat water in the villas, restaurants, and even the spa, a process Lorenzo learned while on holiday at another hotel.

“I need to save money, and I look for the product that matches. Sometimes it’s as simple as choosing the color of tile. For our swimming pools, we use these Thai celadon tiles, which are dark. They’re dark, so that the heat is absorbed during the day,” says Lorenzo. “So when the guest swims at night, the pool is the perfect temperature. It’s nice and warm all the way up to the next morning.”

Even after a late night event at the clubhouse, Lorenzo is up early the next morning to prove his statement correct, testing the new pool that has just been completed in a new location.

It is indeed warm, and the lights, which he has switched on to test, are in order. But of course, while he’s doing laps, his mind is again at work, and as soon as he emerges, he calls for a meeting with his builders.

Lorenzo would’ve tested the lights the night before, but he didn’t want to disturb the nesting turtles. Oh, the turtles! Lubi is a turtle sanctuary, and the staff makes sure mothers can lay their eggs safely on the beach, with the nesting sites cordoned off and the eggs protected, until the hatchlings are ready to be released into the wild.

For all its efforts, Dusit Thani Lubi Plantation was named Best Eco-Friendly Resort at the recent PropertyGuru Philippines Property Awards. Torre Lorenzo Development Corporation (TLDC) was also named Best Boutique Developer for the third consecutive year.

TLDC marked its 25th anniversary earlier this year. The company started back in 1999 providing premium student accommodations in university neighborhoods.

“How did I go from student residences to resorts over 25 years? The journey is really looking for needs that are unfulfilled, where I see the market will be in the next five to 10 years,” says Lorenzo, as he shows us around Torre Lorenzo Loyola, where college students from nearby Ateneo and U.P. reside.

We’re back in Manila and it’s storming outside again, but the students are unperturbed school has been called off, and they’re playing video games or streaming music in the plush lounges.

Lorenzo’s eyes dart about, making sure the walls are spotless, the door hinges well-oiled, the pool sparkling and inviting. It overlooks the Moro Lorenzo Football Field at Ateneo de Manila University, which, with the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center, is named for his father.

“We started with student residences back then because there was that need. I anticipated the growing traffic issue, and that people from the provinces would want a really nice and upscale place to house their children.”

With the traffic situation, even students living in Metro Manila ended up moving into Torre Lorenzo’s upscale residences. When they graduated, they stayed on as young professionals, and later, even stayed on at Torre Lorenzo when they started their families.

“We went outside of Metro Manila when we realized there were people coming home from abroad and retiring, and they want to have that cosmopolitan lifestyle of living in a condominium or a nice upscale residence,” says Lorenzo. “So we decided to look for growth cities, and with a demographic shift. We call it the emerging affluent. There are people who choose to live in the provinces because they don’t want to live in Metro Manila. They’re familiar with upscale living because of what they’re exposed to when they travel, so we brought that to the provinces.”

Lorenzo then connects the dots to the hotel business. “We said, maybe we should get into the luxury hotel business because many of these provinces haven’t had new hotels in a long time,” says Lorenzo. “So we took that risk and we started going into hotels and resorts, of course, really together with the idea of these as part and parcel of integrated communities which have a residential component. And the hotel is an amenity to these spaces. So the idea, really, was whatever the market needed and what we saw, that’s what we decided to pursue.

“Success can be measured in many ways, but for now, it’s knowing that we’ve made life better for the people who live in our projects, who have experienced what we have to offer,” says Lorenzo. “Whether it’s a student, whether it’s a retiree, my goal is to make life better, more efficient for people.”

This article originally appeared in the Premiere Issue of Robb Report Philippines.