Retail giant opens 31st mall in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - Retail giant SM Prime Holdings Inc. is set to open its 31st mall in a place where it used to source most of its shoe merchandise. In a statement, the company said it will open a branch in Marikina City on Friday. SM City Marikina, which is along Marcos Highway, occupies 60,000 square meters of land and has a gross floor area of 122,000 sqm. Total leasable area is 58,000 sqm with the SM department store and supermarket occupying 18,500 sqm and 10,000 sqm, respectively. Its main anchor tenants are SM Department Store and an SM Supermarket. SM City Marikina will offer services for shopping, dining, entertainment, spa, health, and wellness. Among the facilities included are a 1,000-sqm 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; coffee chain Starbucks; clothing and fashion retailers 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, among others. It also features a 2,600-sqm Cyberzone, where the latest in information technology products and services will be available. Marikina is a key city for SM as its shoemakers became vital partners of SM during its growth years in the 1960s as a shoe store in Carriedo, Manila . “Marikina was supplying 70 percent of the shoes we were selling at Shoemart. I would like to think that being one of its biggest buyers of shoes, we contributed to the growth of Marikina," Henry Sy Sr., SM founder, said. Hans Sy, SM Prime president, said the opening of SM Marikina will be “nostalgic" and “a very fitting event" as SM is celebrating its 50th founding anniversary this year. "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 said. SM City Marikina is “a very bright mall with glass walls lining its facade to require less light bulbs and equipped with water treatment facilities. It also has features to make it friendly to persons with disabilities (PWDs) and special needs such as handicap lifts, ramps, drinking fountains and available personnel specially trained to assist PWDs." It also has a breastfeeding station for nursing mothers. SM City Marikina is the first mall to be opened by SM Prime this year. In 2007, the company opened three malls, which were located 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 of 2008, SM Prime is scheduled to open SM Rosales in Pangasinan, SM Baliuag in Bulacan and launch its expansion of SM Megamall and SM Fairview. - GMANews.TV