Robinsons Land aims to open 3 new malls each year

Gokongwei-led property developer Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) is set to open seven new shopping malls outside Metro Manila this year and next year, expanding its nationwide retail leasing portfolio to 1.5 million square meters (sqms).

Three existing malls would also be expanded within the same timeframe, RLC president Frederick Go reported during the company’s stockholders meeting last week.

The new shopping malls that RLC will open this year are Robinsons Place Naga, Robinsons Place Iligan, Robinsons North Tacloban.

Next year, four new malls would rise in Ormoc in Leyte, Pavia in Iloilo, Tuguegarao in Cagayan and Valencia in Bukidnon, he said.

The existing Tacloban and Ilocos malls would be expanded this year, while the Butuan mall would begin to add leasable space by next year.

To date, RLC already operates 44 shopping centers. At end-2016, its gross leasable area stood at 1.3 million sqms, which will expand by 9 percent to 1.39 million sqms this year and further by 8 percent to 1.5 million sqms by next year.

Go told shareholders that RLC’s goal was to open an average of two to three new shopping malls each year.

In the past three years, however, RLC had opened more malls than the usual target. In 2014, it opened six new malls, followed by two new malls and one expansion project in 2015. Last year, it opened four new shopping malls and expanded another one.

RLC’s investment portfolio, which includes its shopping malls, office and hotel businesses, accounted for 66 percent of revenues and 85 percent of cash flow in 2016.

With its total 44 shopping malls, RLC is the country’s second biggest mall developer and operator in the country after SM Prime Holdings. Of the 44, nine are within Metro Manila while 35 are in other urban areas.

The occupancy rate of RLC’s shopping malls averages 95 percent. RLC is landlord to over 8,100 retailers.

Asked how the tenant mix is changing given the environment faced by global fashion houses, Go said “lifestyle is becoming more and more important,” referring to the onslaught of food and other service establishments. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA