SM to open new mall in Pampanga

MANILA, Philippines—The country’s largest shopping mall operator, SM Prime Holdings, is  to open its 44th retail complex in the Philippines on Friday in San Fernando, the capital city of Pampanga.

The brand new seven-storey SM City San Fernando shopping mall has a gross floor area of 42,625 square meters. It is SM Prime’s third mall in the province, after SM City Pampanga (on the Gapan-Olongapo Highway also in San Fernando) and SM City Clark, which opened in November 2000 and May 2006, respectively.

SM City San Fernando has a leasable area of 20,416 square meters, 95 percent of which has already been awarded to various tenants.

“We warmly welcome all our valued customers to our newest and third mall in Pampanga, SM City San Fernando. This caters to the need for another mall in Pampanga as the province has clearly advanced over the years owing to its established agricultural economy and its now thriving tourism industry,” SM Prime president Hans Sy said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Located at the downtown Heritage District in  Barangay. Sto. Rosario,  the mall features a unique facade, a distinctive exterior design which complies with the architectural theme of a heritage area, as mandated by the San Fernando local government, the disclosure said.

The anchor tenants of the new mall are SM Department Store and SM Supermarket. Among the quick service restaurants located in the mall are Jollibee, Pizza Hut, and KFC. Other mall tenants include BDO, Watsons, SM Appliance Center, Ace Hardware, National Bookstore, Bench, and Penshoppe, among others.

The amenities include three cinemas, with a combined seating capacity of 1,068 and parking slots for over 300 vehicles.

San Fernando is strategically located at the heart of Central Luzon, making it the center of commerce and trade of the region. The city is popularly known for its giant lanterns and is also dubbed  the “Christmas Capital of the Philippines.” Major industries include agriculture, manufacturing, food processing, and handicraft.

With the opening of this 44th shopping mall, the SM mall empire has a gross floor area of 5.2 million sqm. This is the third SM mall to be opened this year, after earlier ones that debuted in Olongapo, Zambales and Consolacion, Cebu, last February and June, respectively.

For the rest of 2012, SM Prime is scheduled to open SM City General Santos in Southern Mindanao, SM City Lanang in Davao City, and SM Chongqing in China.

By the end of this year, SM Prime will have 46 malls in the Philippines and five in China with an estimated combined floor area of 6.3 million sqm.