SM Mall of Asia

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Mall facts and statistics
SM Mall of Asia


Location	Bay City, Pasay City, Philippines
Opening date	May 21, 2006
Developer	SM Prime Holdings
Management	SM Prime Holdings
Owner	SM Prime Holdings
No. of stores and services	600 shops, 150 dining establishments
No. of anchor tenants	9
Total retail floor area	386,224 m²
Parking	5,000 cars
No. of floors	2 for the Main and Entertainment Malls, 5 for the North and South Parking Buildings
Website	SM Mall of Asia

The SM Mall of Asia is the largest shopping mall in the Philippines and the 3rd largest shopping mall in the world. In terms of gross floor size, it is next to the Golden Resources Mall and the South Dongguan Mall, both in China. It opened on May 21, 2006^[1].

It is owned and operated by SM Prime Holdings, under the management of Henry Sy, a Chinese-Filipino business tycoon — regarded as one of the wealthiest men in Asia. (Forbes 2006 ranks him as the 14th richest person in southeast Asia, and "Henry Sy and family" as 74th richest person in the "Asia and Australia" region)

The Mall of Asia was constructed within the reclamation area, west of Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City, aptly nicknamed "Bay City". It is built on 19.5 hectares of reclaimed land and has a gross floor area of 386,224 square meters. The mall is located at the southmost tip of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. A roundabout was constructed in the front of the mall with a huge bronze globe similar to Universal Studios. An esplanade was constructed at the back of the mall where it served as the observation center for the First World Pyro Olympics in December 2005.

The mall is very different from the other SM malls, as it does not follow the usual SM mall format. It is the second SM mall to cater to the upper and upper-middle class, the first being The Podium and the 7th high-end mall in Manila, after Ayala Center Makati, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Alabang Town Center, and Power Plant Mall. It has many foreign luxury stores, such as Zara, Marks and Spencer, Tag Heuer, Charriol, Calvin Klein and some other foreign brands. It also has high-end restaurants.

The mall consists of four buildings interconnected by walkways: the Main Mall, Entertainment Mall, and the North and South Carpark Buildings. One of its unique features is a 20-seater tram to make it easier for shoppers to go around. The management’s priority is to make sure shoppers will not get lost inside the mall. There will be two concierge desks—one in the Main Mall and another in the Entertainment Mall. Maps will be given out, and there will be signs aplenty. The Main Mall will include shopping and dining establishments, the food court. The South Parking building will house the SM Department store and half of the 5,000 parking spaces while the North Parking building will include the SM Hypermarket, a spacious office space and more dining areas.

The mall’s main attraction is the first ever IMAX theater in the country, along with a Director's Club Theater for intimate screenings (30 La-Z-Boy seats), a Premiere Cinema, The CenterStage Cinema which can used for live musical concerts and theatrical performances, and six regular cinemas. The mall also features an Olympic sized skating rink and a science museum. The mall also provides office space. Dell International Services, a subsidiary of Dell, Inc. occupies a 13,470.5-square meter area at the second floor of the north parking building of the mall.

1 Construction
2 Expansion plans
3 Slogan
4 References and footnotes
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Construction

The exterior of the SM Mall of Asia, facing Manila Bay.

The mall is the centerpiece project of SM Prime at the newly developed SM Central Business Park, where five one-story buildings serve as the company's corporate offices. Construction began in mid-2002 right after the completion of a contemporary medical school, dining strip and residential complex at Macapagal Boulevard, adjacent to the SM Central Business Park. The mall would have opened before Christmas Day of 2005 but had been delayed due to hitches in the delivery of construction materials. Frequent rains in the last quarter of 2005 also delayed the turnover of mall space to tenants. SM Prime decided to move the opening date to March 3, 2006.

On February 27, 2006, local newspaper Manila Standard Today, reported that a team of Pasay City engineers found huge cracks underneath the structure, which was causing the structure to vibrate. When questioned about the inspection, the Pasay City Engineering Department has categorically denied making any statement regarding defects in the Mall of Asia. Engineer Edwin Javaluyas, Pasay City engineering officer, in his letter to SM Prime Holdings Inc., said he never stated that the city hall’s engineering department inspected the Mall of Asia on February 23, 2006.

SM Prime however decided to move the opening to May 21, 2006. Jeffrey Lim, corporate information officer of SM Prime Holdings, emphasized that a rescheduling of the mall’s opening was made to give the company an opportunity to allow more tenants to open shops and denied that the change was due to structural defects.

On May 20, 2006, the mall was officially inaugurated by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with a special screening of Everest in the San Miguel Coca-Cola IMAX Theater. The movie was shown three days after tri-athlete Leo Oracion became the first Filipino to reach the treacherous mountain’s summit.

Henry Sy, owner of SM Malls said that the name of the biggest mall of asia will be lost come 2007 due to the structural expansion of SM City North EDSA.

[edit] Expansion plans

Adjacent to the south parking building, a two-hectare area has been allocated for the site of a 16,000-capacity multi-purpose coliseum/arena for sporting events, concerts and entertainment shows. It is set to rival the 50-year old Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City. Furthermore, a planned convention/conference center measuring 12,000 square meters will be built as an attractive venue for major conferences and trade exhibits. The convention center once constructed, will be a newer alternative to the Philippine International Convention Center, erected in 1976, located a few blocks away. Along with this, two hotel developments, one with a casino, are also planned for construction.

Also set to the right of the north parking building, The SM i-City is a 69,300-square-meter area allocated to serve as a prime venue for companies engaged in software development and IT-enabled services. A mix of single and multi-storey buildings will be developed to provide for the office and workspace requirements of prospective IT-related locator companies and for support office and backroom operations of business process outsourcing. The first building, OneE-comCenter, began March 8, 2006 and is scheduled for completion in July 2007.