SM Prime Holdings will spend close to P1.4 billion to expand its shopping mall in Bacolod City, capital of Negros Occidental.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, SM Prime said the expansion would be done in two phases starting this year through 2014. It will involve the construction of an annex building, adding 102,043 square meters of gross floor area (GFA) to the main SM City Bacolod mall.
This will bring the Bacolod mall’s total GFA to 171,380 square meters. The annex will offer 81,204 square meters of gross leasable area and is expected to provide additional employment for 2,000 people, the disclosure said.
SM Prime president Hans Sy said this expansion was SM Prime’s way of “paying tribute to the residents of Bacolod City and nearby areas.”
The mall is located on Rizal Street at the Reclamation Area of Bacolod City. SM Prime first opened in Bacolod in March 2007. It was the company’s third mall in the Visayas after SM City Cebu and SM City Iloilo.
SM City Bacolod originally had 71,759 square meters of gross floor area. It had two structures on the property—buildings A and B—which housed SM Department Store and SM Supermarket, apart from local tenants such as Deco’s La Paz Batchoy, Bob’s Restaurant, and Chicken Deli.
The Sy family has already invested P1.6 billion in the Bacolod mall, which currently provides employment for 3,000 people.
By the end of 2012, SM Prime expects to have 46 malls in the Philippines and five in China, with a combined GFA of 6.3 million square meters.