Glorietta

Glorietta is a large shopping mall in the Ayala Center, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. The mall is owned by the Zobel de Ayala family and operated through its holding company, the Ayala Corporation. The mall is divided into five sections (named Glorietta 1–5) and contains many shops and restaurants, as well as cinemas, a gym, arcades and a large central activity center, often used to stage events.

Glorietta 1-4 is integrated with the nearby Greenbelt Mall, SM Makati, Rustan's Makati and The Landmark, a department store. Glorietta 5 is fully detached, located in front of the lot formerly occupied by the Hotel InterContinental Manila and beside Rustan's Department Store. The tenants affected by the October 19, 2007 explosion was given an option to relocate there.^[1]

History

The rebuilt Glorietta 1 & 2

A shot of the central atrium area during an electronics event

Glorietta Building complex in 2008

Glorietta was originally a park surrounded by establishments, and was used as a location by Viva Films for its youth-oriented movie Hotshots. The park, with its outdoor stage for event hosting, was built in the 1970s as part of the wider Makati Commercial Center complex, which included several independent small malls and the Quad cinemas plus retail outlets - some having been opened since the mid-1960s. In the early 1990s the Zobel De Ayala family decided to renovate Glorietta, the Quad mall, Greenbelt and the rest of the Makati Commercial Center compound - then dubbed The Center Makati - and thus all the establishments were merged into a whole new development named the Ayala Center in 1990.

The plan was to convert Glorietta into an indoor facility and integrate it with existing nearby buildings as well as newly constructed ones such as the Quad cinemas.

The Glorietta mall, known originally as Quad, was opened in 1992 with a gross leasable area of 250,000 m², envisioned as one of the largest malls in the Philippines. The mall was divided into four components, two of which were Quad 1 (now Glorietta 1), which retained the four Quad cinemas that it absorbed and were soon named as Glorietta 1 Cinemas and would operate until 2010, and Quad 2 (now Glorietta 2), which had a theme park named Glico's Great Adventure and was soon to become the main setting for a deadly explosion in 2007.

The other two were Quad 3 (now Glorietta 3), which would soon be the home of international restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe and TGI Fridays, and Glorietta 4, a new hub for entertainment with a Timezone branch and seven additional cinemas, and was also home to Oakwood Premier (now Ascott Makati), a premier hotel that stood on top of the mall and became the setting for the Oakwood mutiny, a political siege led by the Magdalo Group which occurred in 2003. All four components were home to a variety of shops and restaurants. While Quad 1, 2, and 3 all opened in 1992, Glorietta 4 opened in 1998, just six years later, as a result of the construction of Oakwood Premier.

Tenants that set up shop in Ayala Center prior to Glorietta's development, most notably Mercury Drug, Automatic Center, Jollibee, Max's, and McDonald's also found a new home in Glorietta. The department stores surrounding the mall, SM Makati, The Landmark, and Rustans, were utilized by Glorietta as its anchor tenants for its supermarkets and department stores.

By the mid- and late 1990s, Glorietta gained popularity as a premier mall. It has an air-conditioned atrium with water features, an indoor children's playground, and an activity center that hosts concerts and shows. The mall was known as Quad until 1997, when it adopted Glorietta as its present name, though the Glorietta name was used as a secondary branding since 1992.

Other new buildings were also constructed between 1999 and 2005, making Glorietta bigger than its original construction plan.

In 2010, Glorietta 1 and 2 were demolished for redevelopment with a new mall, hotel (Holiday Inn and Fairmont Suites) BPO offices and condos (Park Terraces and Garden Terraces). Glorietta 1 was opened in November 5, 2012 with a new activity center, as Glorietta 2 opened in December 7 of the same year. Glorietta 3 is planned to be demolished to finalize a redeveloped Glorietta mall complex, hailed as the crown jewel of Ayala.

A new roofdeck on top of Glorietta 2 is currently under construction. Under Mitsubishi's partnership, a Japan-inspired retail area will open at the roofdeck with HalloHallo as its anchor. The roofdeck retail area will have a GLA of 2,500 square meters. An events area will be built for MNL48, the Philippines' version of Japanese idol group AKB48.^[2][3]

Incidents

2000 Glorietta 2 Explosion

On May 17, 2000, thirteen people were injured in an explosion at Glorietta 2. Police said the blast originated from a restroom of a restaurant and affected a nearby video game arcade (Timezone) as well as the ceiling of the bridge connecting Glorietta 2 to then Park Square 2. Two rival gangs were seen fighting near the restaurant shortly before the blast occurred.^[4]

Oakwood mutiny

On July 27, 2003, Magdalo soldiers led by Lt. Sr. Grade (now Senator) Antonio Trillanes IV took control of the Oakwood apartments in Makati. Glorietta, where the Oakwood Premier stood, was also closed during the siege.

2005 Valentine's Day bombings

On February 14, 2005, a passenger bus was bombed in Makati, near Glorietta. Four people were killed and 36 injured. On the same day, a mall in General Santos City was also bombed. Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility, with spokesperson Abu Solaiman saying on a radio interview: "This is our Valentine gift to Gloria".

2007 Glorietta 2 Explosion

On October 19, 2007, an explosion in Glorietta 2 killed eleven people and injured a hundred others. Initially, authorities termed it a liquefied petroleum gas explosion in a restaurant, but later began investigating the possibility that the explosion may have been a C-4 bomb.^[5][6] The explosion destroyed much of Glorietta 2's main lobby and vehicles parked outside.

Several days later, October 23, 2007, senior government officials expressed "a high level of certainty" that the explosion was an accident,^[7] but the bomb theory has not been totally ruled out. This was brought on by the inability of experts to find bomb components after four days of rigorous investigation. It is believed that the explosion was caused by underground structures in the mall that might have triggered the blast, pending further investigation.

2007 Glorietta 4 Fire

Two days after the explosion, October 21, a fire broke out at noon in the kitchen of one of the restaurants in Glorietta 4. It was put out by firemen an hour later.^[8] The authorities announced that this incident was in no way associated with the earlier Glorietta blast. Glorietta 4 was closed, right after this disaster, while the authorities indicated that it was business as usual in the open areas not affected by the fire.

2016 Glorietta 3 Fire

On November 20, 2016 at around 8 in the evening, fire struck a restaurant in Glorietta 3 which was raised at Fire Alarm Number 1. People within the entire Glorietta Mall were evacuated which caused a minor stampede due to the fear of a repeat of the 2007 Blast. After more than an hour the fire was declared to be under control by the authorities with no injuries and casualties. The mall was closed for the rest of the evening to give way for investigations such as arson as well as to allow for the management to assess the damages. ^[9]

2017 Glorietta 2 Fire

On April 10, 2017 at around 6:32 in the evening, fire struck a under repair elevator at the third floor of Glorietta 2. No person was injured during the incident, the statement added. Normal mall operations at Glorietta.^[10]

Awards

• Shopping Center of the Year (Philippine Retailer's Association and Department of Trade & Industry, 2002 & 2004)

See also

• 2007 Glorietta bombing
• Ayala Avenue
• List of largest shopping malls
• List of largest shopping malls in the Philippines
• List of shopping malls in Metro Manila

References

External links

• Official site at Ayala Malls
• Glorietta

Coordinates: 14°33′04″N 121°01′31″E / 14.55111°N 121.02528°E / 14.55111; 121.02528