Filinvest to beef up mall portfolio

MANILA, Philippines - The Filinvest Group of the Gotianun family intends to beef up its mall portfolio starting next year, further heating up competition in the country’s shopping mall sector currently dominated by the Sy family, the Ayalas and the Gokongweis.

Festival Supermalls Inc., the wholly owned subsidiary of Filinvest Land Inc., said it eyes to bolster its presence nationwide next year with the launch of new malls in Cebu and Laguna along with the expansion of its flagship mall, Festival Supermall in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

Festival Supermall’s expansion and the opening of the Il Corso mall in Cebu and Brentville’s Village Front in Laguna next year will increase the gross leasable area of Filinvest by nearly 60 percent to 219,195 square meters from 134, 090 square meters.

“We target to soft open the Festival Mall expansion, Il Corso in Cebu and the Village Front in Brentville. The major retail project in Cebu, Il Corso will be opening its doors in 2015. The Central Piazza where the main entrance and amphitheater are located will be ready to welcome guests early next year,” Filinvest Land senior vice president for commercial center and retail management Joy Polloso said.

With a gross floor area of 328,756 square meters upon completion of its expansion area, Festival Supermall is seen to be in the top 25 largest malls in Asia and one of the top five in the Philippines.

“Festival Supermall remains the premier regional shopping mall in Southern Metro Manila,” Polloso said.

Il Corso, meanwhile, will have 11 connected buildings and a gross floor area of 55,000 square meters and a gross leasable area of 36,000 square meters upon completion.

The first tranche of the Il Corso development will be a central area with two buildings which will showcase Cebuano-artisan food concepts.

“We would like to attract not just the locals but also the tourists that abound in Cebu and the region.  We envision Il Corso to be Cebu’s newest, unique, refreshing dining, shopping and recreational destination,” Polloso said.

Il Corso is Filinvest’s flagship mall project in Cebu.

Aside from the new malls scheduled for opening next year, Filinvest said it also has two more in the pipeline for 2016.

Fora, a mixed-used development of Filinvest in Tagaytay, will have 32,000 square meters of retail and mall space.

The Center Square Community Mall in Molino, Cavite is also scheduled to be launched in 2016, adding 20,000 square meters in new retail space for Filinvest.