Thursday, September 04. 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
SM Prime Holdings Inc. is set to open a mall in Marikina City, making it the company’s first expansion this year.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company said it would open its 31st mall in the country on Friday to be named as “SM City Marikina.”
The new shopping center occupies 60,000 square meters of land and has a gross floor area of 122,000 square meters.
The total leasable area amounts to 58,000 square meters with the SM Department Store and Supermarket occupying 18,500 square meters and 10,000 square meters, respectively. Both are the mall’s anchor tenants.
As in all its malls, SM City Marikina will offer a complete line of stores, and services for shopping, dining, entertainment, spa, health, and wellness.
Among the facilities included are a 1,000-square meter food court, eight cinemas with a combined seating capacity of 3,348, and basement parking for over 1,100 vehicles.
Other mall tenants include quick service restaurants Jollibee, McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut, full-service restaurant Max’s, and Starbucks.
The mall will also have outlets of Bayo, Kamiseta, Bench, Penshoppe, and Celine; footwear distributors Mendrez and Crocs; and beauty salons Ricky Reyes, Let’s Face It, Forever Flawless, and David’s Salon.
SM City Marikina will also feature a 2,600-square meter Cyberzone, where the latest in information technology products and services will be available.
Marikina is a key city for SM as its shoemakers had been the company’s partners during its growth years in the 1960’s as a shoe store in Carriedo, Manila.
“The mall, which sits on Marikina’s riverbank, was designed by EDGE Interior Design Pty. Ltd., a foreign design consultant based in Australia. We continue to improve on the look of our malls to make them not just aesthetically appealing, but more importantly, environmentally friendly,” Hans Sy, the company’s president said.
SM City Marikina’s glass walls lining its facade would require less light bulbs and would be equipped with water treatment facilities. It also has features to make it friendly to persons with disabilities and special needs such as handicap lifts, ramps, drinking fountains and available personnel specially trained to assist PWDs. It will also have a breastfeeding station for nursing mothers.
Last year, the company opened three malls in Bacolod, Taytay, and Muntinlupa. SM Prime also acquired three existing SM malls in China, namely SM Xiamen, SM Jinjiang, and SM City Chengdu.
For the fourth quarter this year, SM Prime is scheduled to open SM Rosales in Pangasinan, SM Baliuag in Bulacan, as well as launch its expansion of SM Megamall and SM Fairview. --Katrina Mennen A. Valdez
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