Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp. is set to open four new shopping malls this year, which will allow the property developer to breach the 1-million square-meter mark in terms of gross leasable area (GLA) for its shopping mall portfolio.
RLC is set to open Robinsons Place Santiago (Isabela) in October and in November, Robinsons Malls will increase its presence in the Visayas with the opening of Robinsons Place Roxas City. Two more malls are also set to open in December—one in Butuan and another in Malolos (Bulacan), top RLC officials said Monday.
The company is investing at least P6 billion to complete the construction of the four new malls, which add to its existing GLA of about 910,000 sq m in the mall portfolio. RLC is, thus, expected to end the year with 36 shopping malls, making it the second largest shopping mall developer in the country. It will also expand its total mall GLA by about 10 percent.
“In all these locations, we have a first-mover advantage. Right now, these markets have growing consumer markets and underserved markets. Their locations were very well chosen–either in the center of activity or where the growth of the city is moving to,” RLC president Frederick Go said in a conference with tenants.
“We have a very steady pipeline of malls that we’re building. We’re going around the country looking for more sites to build more shopping malls,” Go said.
The Malolos mall has a GLA of 26,800 sq m, Butuan has GLA 26,100 sq m., Roxas City has 23,500 sq m and Santiago has 26,100 sq m, based on a fact sheet released by RLC yesterday. Whenever RLC opens a new mall, Go said tenant occupancy rate was always at least 90 percent.
Santiago City is considered the center of commerce and trade in Isabela. It is home to thousands of business enterprises, banks, schools and manufacturing companies. RLC’s upcoming mall in the city is situated near the junction of three major highways—the Santiago-Tuguegarao Hghway, the City Road which leads to downtown Santiago, and the Maharlika Highway going towards Manila.
In Roxas City, the new mall will be situated at the northern portion of Pueblo de Panay, a 300-hectare masterplanned township development along the Lawaan Highway.
Described by RLC as the center of commerce in the Caraga Region, Butuan City is the seat of regional government offices and boasts of the most number of banks and educational institutions in the region. The new mall will rise on a 7.9-hectare lot along the Butuan-Cagayan de Oro-Iligan Road. It will also feature a 102-room GoHotel.