SM opens 28th mall in Lipa City

Shopping mall giant SM Prime Holdings Inc. will open this Friday its second mall in Batangas — SM City Lipa — aimed at taking advantage of the area’s huge and progressive population base.

In a statement issued yesterday, SM Prime said SM City Lipa, which is strategically located along Ayala Highway, occupies 103,242 square meters of land with 77,682 square meters of gross floor area.

"With its large and progressive population base, sea ports, rich marine resources, and relative proximity to Metro Manila, Batangas is an important location for SM malls. Its growth will be one of the fastest among the key provinces in the country and we would like to be a bigger part of that growth," SM Prime president Hans Sy said.

"Lipa is a bustling city and is one of only three key cities in Batangas. We are happy to make it a part of the still growing family of SM Prime malls," he added.

Lipa City has a population of nearly 200,000 and boasts of natural attractions such as nearby Mts. Malarayat and Makulot. More importantly, it is a major commercial, educational, and industrial destination, making it an ideal location for an SM mall.

Other malls opened this year were SM City Sta. Rosa, SM City Clark, the highly successful SM Mall of Asia and SM Supercenter Pasig, bringing the total number of malls to 27 with a gross floor area of 3.6 million square meters.

SM Prime is also expanding SM North Edsa, which attracts an average daily foot traffic of 315,000 people.

SM Prime is expected to end the year with a total of 28 malls with a gross floor area of 3.56 million square meters.

Banking on the continued strong investor reception to its malls, SM Prime expects to exceed its yearend income target of between P5.3 billion to P5.4 billion.

SM Prime is a member of the SM Group, a conglomerate with interests in the property development, retail, sale, wholesale and merchandising, banking and financial services, leisure and tourism and real estate sectors.