TYCOON HENRY SY’S SM Prime Holdings Inc. is scheduled to open on Oct. 2 its 35th shopping mall in the Philippines—a 32,387-square-meter complex along the Alabang-Zapote Road in Las Piñas.

SM Center Las Piñas, which is located in Barangay Talon, Pamplona, is SM Prime’s second mall in Las Piñas City after SM City Southmall.

“With its vibrant economy, and eco-friendly environment, Las Piñas provides a good venue for SM malls,” SM Prime president Hans Sy said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Las Piñas City is recognized as one of the cleanest and greenest cities in Metro Manila and in the Philippines. The city was included in the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project of the Asian Institute of Management.

The disclosure noted that Las Piñas was also internationally acclaimed for its love for the arts and music with its celebrated Las Pinas Boy’s Choir and the historic Bamboo Organ, the only musical instrument of its kind in the world which is housed in the Las Piñas Church.

The anchor tenants of the new mall are SM Hypermarket, Ace Hardware, Watsons and Banco de Oro Unibank. Other tenants include Jollibee, Savory Chicken, The Old Spaghetti House and Inasal Chicken Bacolod.

SM Supercenter Las Piñas also provides parking slots for over 500 vehicles and a terminal for public utility vehicles.

The entire SM Prime malls in the country now have a combined gross floor area of 4.4 million sq.m.

SM Prime also completed and unveiled earlier this year three expansion projects. Doris C. Dumlao