Elizabeth Mall: A different downtown experience

Four years ago, during their 33rd wedding anniversary, Atty. Augusto Go gave his wife Elizabeth a gift like no other. He gave her a mall which he named after her, “as payment for his personal shortcomings as a husband,” explained Mrs. Gan-Go.

Elizabeth Mall or emall to local patrons has done really well and has been able to serve its clientele. Now, Elizabeth Gan-Go, the woman for whom the mall was dedicated, wants to give more to emall’s clients; thus, the birth of emall 2.

Emall 2 is the 7,498.90 square meter annex to the existing emall, which will henceforth be known as emall1. “We decided to expand the mall to give our clients more things to look at and a lot of options to choose from,” shared Mrs. Gan-Go.

Because of the mall expansion, the management has also decided to group together the mall’s tenants according to their clientele. “We divided the mall into three, the first floor is for food and services, the second floor is for ladies, that is where all the boutiques are located, and the third floor is for electronics, where computers, cellphones and other gadgets are. I’d like to build it up as a Digital City,” Mrs. Gan-Go explained.

Although there are now more shops at emall, Beth Go pointed out that what spells the difference is the fourth floor, which has been converted into an activity and entertainment center, complete with function rooms.

Emall’s fourth floor has a 56 square meter stage, state-of-the-art sounds and lights system, a control room and air-conditioned dressing rooms with private washrooms for males and females.

“Each function room is good for a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 200 people. The whole fourth floor can hold about 700 to 800 people. I am really proud of the fourth floor,” Beth Go smiled, adding that the fourth floor will be a welcome development for event organizers who want to stage shows or concerts in the mall.

Mrs. Gan-Go shared that after four years of operation, they have realized that the mall’s clientele are those from class B and C, so they are doing their best to serve the needs of their identified client niche. “Our shoppers know that this is their mall. The people who come here are different from those who visit the other malls that are high-end. The ordinary people are the ones who come to emall. You can see in their facial expressions that they are really happy here because they feel at home,” she said.

To prove her point that people are “at home” at emall, Mrs. Gan-Go revealed that even when the mall is already closed, there are still people who stay at the park fronting the mall. “I converted the façade of the mall into a park and at night, so you can see that there are still people who stay there. They have made a second Fuente out of the mall,” she said.

With the expansion, emall now has over 200 tenants to serve the needs of mall goers. Emall has definitely made a difference at the downtown area. Downtown Cebu has truly found an icon in emall.

“We have expanded the mall for the downtown people, to give them their own supermarket, their own mall,” Mrs. Elizabeth Gan-Go concluded with a sense of fulfillment.