THE COUNTRY’S BIGGEST shopping developer SM Prime Holdings Inc., owned by tycoon Henry Sy, will open Thursday its 36th domestic retail complex in Rosario, Cavite.
The new mall, which has a gross floor area of 52,142 square meters, will be SM Prime’s fourth mall in the province of Cavite. It is located along General Trias Drive in Barangay Tejeros, SM Prime disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.
SM City Rosario is the last SM mall slated for opening in 2009—after SM Naga and SM Center Las Piñas as well as after the expansion of SM Fairview, SM Rosales and SM North Edsa (with the opening of Sky Garden).
“Rosario is a vibrant municipality in Cavite, a province which we consider to be a high-growth area, being a prominent part of the progressive Calabarzon (Calamba-Laguna-Batangas-Quezon) region. It is a relatively well-off, urban municipality in the province of Cavite and is home to the Cavite economic zone,” SM Prime president Hans Sy said in a statement.
“Our three existing malls in the province are doing very well. Thus, as we eagerly open the doors of SM City Rosario, we expect it to likewise adequately service the various needs of our loyal customers in Cavite,” Sy added.
The major tenants of the new Rosario mall are SM Supermarket, SM Department Store, Ace Hardware, SM Appliance and personal care products distributor Watsons. Other tenants include quick service restaurants Jollibee and KFC, Savory Chicken, Max’s and Red Ribbon, fashion and apparel retailers Penshoppe and Bench, and National Bookstore, among others.
Next year, five new SM malls are scheduled to open to add 279,228 sq.m. to gross floor area, which will hit a total of 4.8 million by end-2010. The new malls are SM City Calamba (41,394 sq.m.); SM City Novaliches (55,085 sq.m.); SM City Tarlac (103,340 sq.m.); SM Supercenter Masinag in Antipolo City (45,000 sq.m.) and SM City Supercenter San Pablo (34,409 sq.m.). By the end of next year, the company will have 41 malls all over the Philippines.
The SM chain has 10,374 domestic tenants and the biggest network of cinemas numbering 201 with a total seating capacity of 125,382.
