Posted on 10:30 PM, April 29, 2010 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
SM Prime Holdings, Inc., the mall development arm of retail and banking tycoon Henry Sy, has bought a property in Novaliches, Quezon City from the group of tobacco, alcohol, banking and airline magnate Lucio C. Tan.
“Eton Properties Philippines, Inc. and Philippine National Bank (PNB) recently signed a memorandum of agreement with SM Prime involving the sale of a three-hectare prime property that forms part of a 13.8-hectare mixed-use township development dubbed North Belton Communities in Quezon City,” Eton Properties said in a statement yesterday. “SM Prime will construct a commercial and shopping complex within two years from execution of the [agreement],” it added.
Last year, Eton Properties signed a deal for SM’s Super Shopping Market, Inc. to open an SM Hypermarket branch in the former’s two-level Centris Station on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in Quezon City.
Meanwhile, SM Prime, the country’s largest mall developer and operator, will open to the public today SM City Tarlac, the 37th SM shopping mall in the country.
The four-level mall, which is the first SM mall in the province of Tarlac, has a gross floor area of 103,340 square meters (sq. m.) and occupies 34,385 sq. m. of land.
This year, SM malls will also rise in Calamba and San Pablo in Laguna, Novaliches in Quezon City, Masinag in Antipolo and Suzhou in China.
Shares in SM Prime and Eton Properties were unchanged yesterday at P10.25 and P3.35 apiece, respectively. -- N. J. C. Morales
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