The sprawl of retail stores and restaurants commingling with residences and commercial buildings just attest to the integrated lifestyles urban people lead now. I see the facelifts that are taking place in the most prominent malls nowadays. Whether these were spurred by competition or upgrading consumer's shopping experience, or both, there is no doubt that we, the public, benefit from this. The changes actualized are reflections of a changing society as well. Even in the USA many people are moving back to the city to be near stores, colleges.
Cityland has excellent value for the money and are quickly bought up and would be a great development for SM partner in a coventure of condos, colleges, and malls
http://www.citylandcondo.com/properties.html so a joint venture with city land would provide housing for the new SM university and customers for a SM mall.
Parents from all over the Philippines buy condos for their students in Manila and the same could happen in Cebu as it is a magnet for students from Letye, Bohol, Negroes and Mindanao.
(http://condominium4u.googlepages.com/) condo/mall like Robinsons Place Manila
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 newest attraction is the Pacifica Entertainment Plaza. Besides bowling and billiards facilities, the building will house 10 theaters, including a Director’s Club and the first ever IMAX theater in the Philippines. The theater, named as the San Miguel Coca-Cola IMAX Theater would also have the largest screen in the Philippines at 22 x 30 meters, similar to the height of an eight-story building. 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 (call center), 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.
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 iCity 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.
THE Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) is confident that the presence of SM City-Bacolod will cause the mushrooming of small businesses in the periphery of the reclamation area.
MBCCI Vice President for Internal Affairs Frank Carbon said with 3,000 to 4,000 people employed by SM City, "I am confident that boarding houses, eateries, among other small-time businesses, will sprout in the areas beside Manokan Country, Vendors' Market, Dawis, and Barangay 16."
With this scenario, "I am pretty sure that money will just be around the city and this is good for our local economy," Carbon said.
Carbon said he is also grateful that SM City did not only give benefits to Bacoleños but also to some Negrenses as far as San Carlos City in the north and Hinoba-an in the south.
He said a lot of Bacolod and Negros businessmen will also be given opportunity to think of another business ventures that SM could not give to the public.
Meanwhile, Bacolod Lone District Rep. Monico Puentevella said "SM City is a long awaited project for several years. So it's about time for us to enjoy it. Let's all welcome SM to the City of Smiles and hope that our local economy picks up more."
For his part, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said "With SM, small and medium industries in Bacolod will also be given hope to shine benefiting the ordinary people by generating jobs and providing income to small manufacturers and vendors alike."
Leonardia said SM City will also be a big factor for the tourism and investment promotion of the city.
As for the plan of SM management to also put up a convention center soon, the mayor is confident that Bacolod will soon be "the real premier City in the south where residents have a high sense of pride of the place, of self, and display significant value of concerns for the common good."
And with the presence of call centers - Teletech, IOAsia, Focus and TelePerformance, Leonardia is also confident that the city will soon shine in economically.
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