RLC opens Cebu mall

CEBU CITY—Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp. yesterday opened its biggest shopping mall outside Metro Manila–a retail hub that is part of a mixed-use estate with a hotel, an office tower and residential buildings–that will transform the skyline of Cebu’s city center in the future.

The group’s 90-year-old patriarch John Gokongwei Jr. himself bought the property three to four years ago, noting that the site was in a very good location and was big enough for a shopping mall complex. The 4.7-hectare Robinsons Galleria Cebu has a gross floor area of 158,000 square meters and a leasable area of 65,000 square meters.

Apart from the shopping mall area, the mall has some space devoted to business process outsourcing (BPO) offices with a footprint of 6,000 square meters. This is but the curtain-raiser to the office tower, which will rise in the future.

“This is the most important shopping center project we have built since Manila and it’s very special to us,” said RLC president Frederick Go, citing the roots of the Gokongwei family in Cebu.

As a young man in the 1940s, Gokongwei built a multibillion-dollar empire by trading basic goods on a bicycle and on board a small boat off the pier of Cebu. This was to support his widowed family.

Since then, Gokongwei has built a Southeast Asian business empire anchored on food, real estate, aviation and telecommunications industries.

Go noted that Robinsons Galleria Cebu was built based on the specifications of the patriarch, adding that the mandate was “to make sure we build something we can be proud of, to be a landmark and can boost trade and tourism in Cebu.”

Robinsons Galleria Cebu also marks RLC’s 41st shopping mall in the Philippines and the third in Cebu. It is located along Gen. Maxilom Avenue in Cebu City, which is very near the port and is accessible through public transport vehicles.

The land on which the new mall stands on is only 70 percent used, Go said, noting that in the future, three residential condominium towers, one BPO-oriented tower and a 220-room Summit Hotel with a ballroom would rise on this estate.

While RLC is very selective with its residential property projects, Go said the group was upbeat on this particular area. “We have a beautiful mall,” he said, noting that in the competition for residential offerings, areas near shopping malls had an edge as proven by RLC’s success in selling residential units beside the malls in Magnolia and Ermita in Metro Manila.