Greenhills Shopping Center
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Greenhills Shopping Center is a tiangge-style shopping mall in San Juan, Metro Manila, the Philippines. It has over 2,000 stores, and espouses an 'indoor-outdoor' theme, with the shopping center having the appearance of several distinct buildings (some separated by a main road) that are all interconnected through pathways and bridges. It hosts a Roman Catholic chapel and a Muslim prayer room, a development which sparked protests from the local Christian-dominated community. The shopping center is bounded by Ortigas Avenue on the west, Connecticut Street on the south, Club Filipino (also known as McKinley), Eisenhower, and Annapolis streets on the north, and Missouri Street on the east. This mall faces the tip end of Wilson Street.
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[edit] V-mall
V-mall, formerly known as Virra Mall, closed last January 2005 for 10 months. Ortigas & Co., Limited Partnership (OCLP) used this time period to redesign the mall. The stalls and people selling pirated CDs and DVDs are now gone. Ortigas officials wanted to show class and regain its old reputation as a center for computers.
Virra Mall’s P500-million worth of renovation into the new V-mall was completed in December 2005. The V-mall renovation is part of a four-year plan by Ortigas that began in 2002 to spruce up one of the country’s oldest shopping centers.
V-mall would boost Greenhills’ reputation even as some of its rivals are trying to position themselves for economic growth. Although OCLP lost some rental income during the 10 month renovation, Joey Santos, the general manager of the Greenhills Shopping Center, believes that the new look would draw in more customers after[1]. He said they were aiming for a more spacious look to create better ambiance. The Greenhills Shopping Center occupies 16 hectares along Ortigas Avenue, of which V-Mall accounts for 20,000 square meters.
[edit] Store attractions
V-mall sports a new look with five attractions from the SM group that include the successful Toy Kingdom chain, SM Appliance Center, Our Home, Watson's, and Ace Hardware.
According to Joey Santos, V-Mall still retains the computer stores that have been favorite destinations of technology lovers and the old toy shops that have been the mecca of toy lovers and collectors from all over Metro Manila[2].
Totally redesigned to make it more convenient for shoppers to go around, V-mall boasts of a wider area as the escalators have been relocated to the sides instead of its old location at the middle of the mall. It also features a scenic elevator that allows shoppers to see the whole area on their way to the top levels.
Sports shops like Ralph’s Sports Shops and Planet Sport are also part of the new attractions. The Great Eats Food Court has several food outlets at the third level of V-mall together with Q-Power Station, and an arcade and amusement center. Astrovision, whose first store was at the old Virra Mall is back home in its new a 300-square meter shop. Cinderella, one of the oldest stores in the Greenhills Shopping Center, is also back with another branch in V-Mall.
Joey Santos disclosed that Goodwill Bookstore will open its newest branch here. To make it a total family destination, the dental, optical and beauty clinics will be back to serve the needs of families.
“They can come here to check on the affordable tech gadgets that includes MP3’s for the teens, iPods and other attractions that make up the complete shopping experience and perhaps we are the most complete shopping center in the whole Metropolis as we do have everything that the family needs under just one roof,” Santos said.
V-mall is now connected to the new parking building of the GSC to make it easier for shoppers to walk to and from the parking area (known as the Annapolis Carpark) and V-mall. It also has branches of Dunkin' Donuts, Milky Way, Crazy Crepes, Pho Hoa and a Chinese Deli among others in the mall’s peripheral area.
In preparation for the expected increase in the number of shoppers frequenting GSC on Sundays, the air conditioned chapel has been upgraded to 300 seats to accommodate the many mass goers coming to the shopping hub.
The management team of Greenhills Shopping Center, the country’s value shopping mecca, also manages the operations of Tiendesitas, ensuring the complementation and synergy of both shopping destinations which cater primarily to value-conscious foreign and domestic shoppers.
[edit] Malls
- Annapolis Carpark Square: a carpark hosting computer shops and popular fast-food franchises such as Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, KFC, and Yoshinoya.
- The Jewellery: a vaulted hallway that leads to a plethora of jewellery shops.
- Connecticut Carpark: a carpark featuring restaurants and bars on the ground floor. Trendy and upscale.
- Bridgeway Shops: a strip of shops and stores located between the elevated bridge leading to the Connecticut Carpark and the 2nd floor of the Centermall, where various cellphone shops are found.
- The Shops: a wide hallway featuring local and foreign boutiques, Cinnabon and Watsons, a drugstore.
- LifeStyle Center: contains a sports center and antique merchandise, such as furnitures, old coins and other memorabilia.
- Beauty Central: contains salons, beauty parlors, and diet restaurants
- McKinley Arcade: features upscale restaurants specializing in Filipino cuisine.
- The Strip: features Chinese and other Asian restaurants.
- Theater Mall: contains cinemas and a few boutiques, software shops, and restaurants.
- Promenade: contains cinemas, restaurants, KTV, concert hall, and book shops. Trendy and upscale, and a popular destination for young people.
- Music Museum
- Shoppesville Arcade: One of the older shopping centers in the Greenhills Shopping Center. Made up of 4 levels. The lower 2 levels contain various shops, selling local and imported merchandise. The 3rd level is mostly composed of stores selling RTWs, toys, and other gadgets. The 4th level, known as Shoppesville Plus, hosts many computer shops formerly located Virra Mall, before it was renovated into the new V-Mall.
- V-Mall: contains computer shops, some boutiques, some of SM Prime's stores, a bookstore and a food court.
