DoubleDragon-SMIC unit to build second CityMall in Cebu

Published June 9, 2014 10:31am

(Updated 5:07 p.m.) CityMall Commercial Centers Inc., owned by DoubleDragon Properties Corp. and SM Investments Corp., is building another CityMall in Cebu after bagging a long-term lease to a prime lot along a major national road in the province.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, DoubleDragon said its 66-percent owned subsidiary CityMall Commercial signed a 30-year lease agreement with Dunes and Eagle Land Development Corporation.

Sy-led SM Investments Corp. owns 34 percent of CityMall Commercial.

"Grand CityMall-Bacalso will be finished in 2015 because it is bigger than the regular CityMall," DoubleDragon president and COO Ferdinand Sia told GMA News Online in an e-mail message.

The deal with dunes and Eagle cover a commercial property along N. Bacalso Avenue, a national road that connects Northern and Southern Cebu.

The prime property is sandwiched by existing mall and the Cebu South Bus Terminal, and a few meters away from the soon-to-rise Cebu City Medical Center Hospital, DoubleDragon noted in the disclosure.

"The project will be the second CityMall to be built in Cebu," the disclosure read, noting it will be called Grand CityMall.

The site is right across Librando Transit Terminal and is surrounded by several transport terminals, schools, residential communities and government offices.

"There's no word yet if it will round up the five malls this year, but we will announce for our investors' information," Investor Relations head Jose Desales told GMA News Online.

The fifth CityMall for this year is on track and will be announced this June, Sia said.

So far, the company has noted the other locations of the CityMall include Roxas City in Capiz province, Guiwan and Tetuan in Zamboanga City, and Consolacion in Cebu.

However, given the design of the projects, DoubleDragon is on track to build and open five malls by year-end, Desales said.

"If you look at the CityMall projects, it's like Lego. They all have the same design, and construction will take only six to seven months to finish," he added.

DoubleDragon is jointly owned by Jollibee Foods Corp. chairman Tony Tan Caktiong and business partner Edgar “Injap” Sia II.

It is the second business venture of Sia and Tan Caktiong after Jollibee Foods bought a 70 percent stake in Mang Inasal for P3 billion in 2010. Sia kept a 30-percent interest in the grilled chicken restaurant chain which he founded. – Danessa O. Rivera/VS, GMA News

Tags: doubledragonpropertiescorp, sminvestmentscorp, citymallcommercialcenter, citymallcebu