SM opens Lucena mall; 2 more malls set to open next month

SM Prime Holdings Inc., the country’s largest mall operator, has opened its newest project in Lucena City, Quezon province, only the first in a string of three mall openings this year.

In a disclosure to the Securities and Exchange Commission, SM Prime said the three-level SM City-Lucena, with a total floor area of 72,056 square meters, is already 85 percent leased out since opening last Oct. 3.

The 15th in SM Prime’s growing chain of malls nationwide, SM City-Lucena leads off two other scheduled mall openings this year – SM City-Baguio on Nov. 21 and SM City-Marilao, Bulacan on Nov. 28.

These new malls will bring the total number of SM supermalls to 17 and gross floor area to around 2.2 million sqm. by the end of the year.

As with the rest of the SM malls, Lucena’s anchor tenants include SM Department Store, SM Supermarket, SM Appliance Center, Watson’s, Ace Hardware, Our Home, Toy Kingdom and Surplus Shop.

Located at the intersection of the Lucena/Pagbilao national highway and Dalahican Road, the new mall will cater to the residents of Quezon and neighboring provinces in the Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions, including Marinduque, Romblon and Masbate.

SM Prime, controlled by the family of retail magnate Henry Sy, will continue with its landbanking activities to ensure adequate sites for its mall expansion program.

To date, it has a total landbank of 144 hectares in strategic locations around the country which include Bacolod, Marikina, Laguna, Bulacan, Pangasinan, Lucena, Cavite, Batangas and Cabanatuan.

The company is targeting to put up an average of two supermalls every year for the next five years.

Also part of the company’s expansion include other areas in Mindanao as encouraging results of their provincial malls have driven SM Prime to acquire more land properties in these areas.

Last year, SM Prime opened two new malls – SM City-Cagayan De Oro and SM Bicutan – allowing it to open new markets and serve more customers.