Filinvest giving malls P7-B facelift

Filinvest’s Danny Antonio

Taipan Andrew Gotianun’s Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) is looking to establish itself as one of the most respected names in the country’s retail sector as it sets out on the multi-billion revamp of its current projects.

The company cedes that in terms of size, trying to compete with other taipan  Henry Sy’s mall empire would be a mistake.

What Filinvest lacks in scale, it plans to make up for in the quality of customer experience that it can deliver to its customers, says Danny Antonio, managing director at FDC subsidiary Filinvest Alabang Inc.

“What has happened in our country is that malls have replaced parks as the place families go to on weekends to relax,” he tells SundayBiz.

Because of this, he adds Filinvest’s goal was to make its retail establishments—namely the Festival Supermall in Alabang, Muntinlupa, and another planned commercial complex at the South Road Properties area in Cebu—into premiere weekend hotspots for Filipinos.

The company has allotted P3.5 billion for the development of each location, bringing the total to P7 billion over the next three years.

For Antonio, malls should be more than just “big boxes” where people go to get their groceries.

“When we first opened Festival Mall years ago, a key element of the place was its entertainment. That’s why we had small theme parks and other attractions inside,” Antonio explains.

“People as far as Pampanga and Bulacan were going to Festival because the mall was a good destination,” he cites.

Over the years, however, due partly to the company’s own financial and other internal constraints, the Festival Mall has failed to stay fresh, causing it to lose market share to the nearby Alabang Town Center, managed by the Ayala Group.

Although Festival Mall still stands as the heart of the 244-hectare Filinvest Corporate City in Muntinlupa, Antonio says improvements are already badly needed.

“If I remember our original game plan, these improvements should have been started five to seven years after the mall opened. That was 1997,” he says.

What Filinvest retail developments lack in size, they make up for in customer experience

“Now, it’s already been 14 years since the mall started and there have been no significant changes,” he points

The work at Alabang would involve the construction of a brand-new wing that would increase by about 50 percent the total leasable area of the already-vast Festival Mall.

Antonio says the company would build around a creek that runs through the Festival Mall property, turning it into a waterway that would serve as an attraction in itself.

He says  the company would emphasize the need for open spaces in the new mall wing to make shopping an even more pleasant experience for customers.

Aside from this, he said the property’s sloped topography would not be tampered with significantly, adding to the new mall’s natural appeal.

An old Department of Health building, which has already been declared a historical landmark, would also be integrated into the mall to achieve a more cultural feel.

“We want to change the shopping center experience for Filipinos,” Antonio says. He says the new Festival Mall wing would be ready by 2014. Once the new areas are built, Antonio says the company would then turn its focus on refreshing the existing Festival Mall’s facilities.

He adds Filinvest was also aiming to regain the “upper-A” crowd, made up of residents of posh Alabang subdivisions nearby. Antonio says the company had conceded this customer base to Alabang Town Center in recent years.

Festival Mall, he says, is now popular mainly with the “B” and “C” crowd, a bigger, albeit more budget-conscious consumer base.

Meanwhile, Filinvest says the company would simultaneously develop its retail property at the South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu. The seafront SRP is just across the street from the 36-hectare, P25 billion residential space area developed by the group’s residential property arm Filinvest Land Inc.

The SRP area, to be built on reclaimed property, will be given a “beach side” atmosphere. At its heart will be an outdoor sand box where nearby residents can come and relax. And as a throwback to Cebu’s rich history, the company also plans to bring in a replica of an old Spanish galleon to add to the area’s overall flavor.

Not to mention the company’s plans to put out a three-story statue of national hero Lapu-Lapu, which was recently removed from Rizal Park for being taller than Rizal himself, will also be a key attraction amid the stores and restaurants.

Like the Festival Mall, the company plans to take advantage of the SRP’s natural surroundings to create more customer-friendly surroundings.

Once all the work is done, Antonio says the company hopes that it would “raise the bar” for malls in the country. “This is our way of giving back to our community,” he says.