An artist’s rendition of the upcoming Greenhills regional mall
Upscale property developer Ortigas & Co. has broken ground for a new regional mall that will rise in Greenhills shopping complex by 2021, becoming the centerpiece of the prime mixed-use estate which is undergoing a P60-billion redevelopment.
Ortigas is investing P6.3 billion for the new seven-storey shopping mall, which will feature over 150 global lifestyle brands and about 2,000 bazaar or “tiangge” stalls.
The first phase of the new regional mall will have a gross floor area (GFA) of over 100,000 square meters and three basement parking levels which will open 1,300 parking slots. This is the second development to be launched in line with the redevelopment of Greenhills, which kicked off last year with the launch of residential tower Connor.
“This retail project is a showcase of what the public can expect from the new Greenhills. We are taking the shops and concepts we have now and bringing those to a whole new level that both customers and tenants will enjoy,” said Ortigas president and chief executive officer Jaime Ysmael.
A regional mall refers to a shopping center with a large footprint and diverse selection of shops – one that attracts people outside its location.
Upon completion of the Greenhills redevelopment, Ysmael said in a press briefing that the 16-hectare estate would have about a million square meters in GFA, more than double the current available space. Total GFA at the regional mall will also expand to 281,000 square meters.
To improve traffic flow and make the estate more “pedestrian-friendly,” underground roads leading to basement parking areas will be built. After 2022, the company will also build a new boulevard to improve connectivity to the surrounding road network.
“We are building on the format that we have now, and making it more attuned to the current trends of global and local retail,” Ortigas vice president and Ortigas Malls general manager Renee Bacani said, noting that the new mall would be the “new crown jewel” of the estate.
Bacani also stated that while the shopping complex of Greenhills would be revitalized with the new mall, Ortigas would continue to support local entrepreneurs who need a platform to grow their business. “We have always supported Filipino entrepreneurial talent and we will continue to be a retail incubator for these up and coming businesses,” Bacani said.
Food will be another anchor, as Greenhills’ new mall is set to open with more restaurants, novel food concepts, a budget-friendly food court, and an upscale food hall. It will also have four prestige and two regular cinemas to complement the existing ones in Promenade. Overall, food and beverage will account for 40 percent of the future retail space.
Ortigas is also shaping the mall to become a hub for wellness, with allotment for more open space, as well as clinics and gyms to serve future Greenhills residents and shoppers.
The new mall will also become the central link to the rest of the properties in the area: Connor, the refreshed Unimart, McKinley Arcade parking, and an upcoming business process outsourcing (BPO) office space.
“The new Greenhills is not only vital to our company, but to the growth of San Juan City as well. The spaces we are introducing are designed to give the public a holistic live-work-play lifestyle, in a strategic location that will open them to new opportunities and experiences,” Ysmael said.
The upcoming Greenhills mall will be the “crown jewel” of the 16-hectare estate