SM signs lease for Consolacion mall

SM Prime Holdings Inc., (SM Prime) announced last Friday that it has signed a long-term lease with Everjust Realty Development Corp. for a 46,926-square-meter lot in Barangay Lamac, Consolacion, Cebu.

SM Prime plans to build its second mall in Consolacion. They expect to finish the project by 2011.

SM Prime president Hans Sy said the company earmarked P800 million for the upscale mall, which will have a supermarket, department store and a variety of shops.

The signing of the lease contract is one of the first significant steps that SM Prime is taking towards completing its second mall in Cebu, which will break ground before the end of this year.

“The company considers Cebu as an ideal site for further expansion of SM malls, given its strategic role in the Visayas region and its strong export quality capability. It is also an ideal tourism destination and a take-off point for island-hopping by ferry to other destinations,” Sy said in his disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Sy, in his visit to Cebu last Friday, told reporters that the project will be a two-story mall with a total area of 53,000 sqm and leasable space of 40,000 sqm.

Sy said they are now finalizing the architectural plan of the project, which will bear a new look based on “a new image for SM.”

“It will be an upscale concept but for the open market,” Sy said at the sidelines of the Gear and Glam Circle of 10 event held at the SM City Cebu Northwing.

He said the Consolacion project signifies their confidence in Cebu. “My only regret is that I should have done this (project) much earlier,” he said.

After SM Consolacion, the company will focus on their mall project at the South Road Properties in 2012. “It is good to open one in every year,” he said, adding that they might accelerate more mall projects in Cebu in the coming years.

For the rest of 2010, SM Prime will also be opening SM City Calamba and SM City Novaliches in Quezon City. The company is also set to open its fourth SM mall in mainland China, located in Suzhou City. The company is expected to have 40 malls in the Philippines with a total gross floor area of 4.8 million sqm by the end of the year.