SM Prime to open San Pablo mall; its 38th in RP

Mall operator SM Prime Holdings Inc. will open its 38th shopping mall in the country Friday in in San Pablo, Laguna. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Thursday, SM Prime said SM City San Pablo has a gross floor area of 56,086 square meters (sqm) with a leasable area of 34,169 sqm. The mall’s anchor tenants are SM Supermarket and SM Department Store, the company said in the disclosure. The mall has four cinemas with a combined seating capacity of 1,400 as well as parking slots for over 600 vehicles and a terminal for public transportation. The 38 malls translate to a gross floor area of 4.7 million sqm, the company said. With two more malls to open before the year ends, the company said the 40 malls will have a total gross floor area of 4.8 million sqm. SM City San Pablo is the second SM mall in Laguna and the second to open since April 2010 when SM City Tarlac was inaugurated. For the rest of 2010, SM Prime is scheduled to open SM City Calamba, also in Laguna, and SM City Novaliches in Quezon City. —JE/VS, GMANEws.TV