SM group to open biggest shopping mall in Mindanao

Tycoon Henry Sy is opening Friday his 46th shopping mall in the country, SM Lanang Premier, which will add 144,000 square meters to the group’s retail space portfolio.

Sy-led SM Prime Holdings, the country’s biggest shopping mall developer, announced that the new mall located on J.P. Laurel Avenue in Barangay (village) Lanang, Davao City, is its second mall in the province. The first is SM City Davao, which opened in November 2001 and which is nine kilometers away.

About 88 percent of retail space in the new mall has been contracted to various tenants, SM Prime said.

SM Prime president Hans Sy said: “We warmly welcome our valued customers to our second mall in the province of Davao, SM Lanang Premier. This is SM Prime’s biggest and first premier mall development project in Mindanao that is designed to cater to the growing demands of the Davao market and its vibrant tourism industry.”

The mall’s facade is accentuated by the folded building concept, inspired by the traditional Japanese art of folding paper known as Origami. The shopping mall’s anchor tenants are SM Department Store and SM Supermarket. It will also house the SMX Davao Convention Center.

Other mall tenants are Watsons, Ace Hardware, Kultura, Forever 21, Centerstage, Vikings, Cha Time, Mesa, Jollibee and KFC. SM Lanang Premier’s amenities include five cinemas and an Imax Theater, with a combined seating capacity of 2,200; a bowling center; a Science Discovery Center; and parking slots for more than 1,500 vehicles.

Incorporating environmentally sustainable technology in its design and construction, SM Lanang Premier features a Skygarden with water fountains, art installations and landscaping. The mall is also designed with skylights and will use LED lighting to ensure efficient energy consumption.

Lanang is a highly urbanized commercial center in the province of Davao. It is home to one of the cultural heritage sites in the city, the Davao Museum. Davao is one of the country’s major sources of Philippine export products such as bananas, tuna, finished wood products, pineapples and rubber.

SM Lanang Premier is the fifth SM mall to be opened this year after SM City Olongapo in Zambales, SM City Consolacion in Cebu, SM City San Fernando in Pampanga and SM City General Santos in South Cotabato.

For the rest of 2012, SM Prime is scheduled to open SM Chongqing in China. By the end of this year, SM Prime will have opened five malls in China. The combined gross floor area of Philippine and China malls are estimated at 6.3 million square meters.