SM opens 70th mall

SM City Telabastagan is the 70th SM mall in PH

Property giant SM Prime Holdings has hit the 70th shopping mall milestone in its Philippine retail empire expansion, cementing its market-leading position with the opening of a new shopping hub in Pampanga.

SM City Telabastagan, which opened yesterday, is the fourth SM mall in this province. The new mall adds 55,000 square meters of gross floor area to the portfolio of SM Prime, one of the largest property developers in Southeast Asia in terms of market capitalization.

The three others are SM City Pampanga, SM City Clark, and SM City San Fernando Downtown.

SM City Telabastagan, located along McArthur Highway, will have two floors of shopping, multicultural dining and entertainment zones adorned by indoor pocket gardens.

SM City Telabastagan is opening with 84 percent of space awarded to tenants. It will feature six digital cinemas alongside popular local and international brands such as The SM Store, SM Supermarket, Uniqlo, Surplus Shop, Watsons, SM Appliance Center, Miniso, Ace Hardware, BDO and China Bank.

Earlier this year, SM Prime opened two other malls: SM Center Imus in Cavite last Feb. 16 and SM City Urdaneta Central in Pangasinan last May 4. It will also open SM City Legazpi in Albay and SM Center Ormoc in Leyte.

Sy family-led SM Prime is one of the two most valuable enterprises in the country with market capitalization exceeding P1 trillion.  The other one is its parent conglomerate, SM Investments Corp. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA