THE lagoon area of the Ayala Center Cebu (ACC) will soft open in the second half of next month under a new name and a completely new look.
Dubbed The Terraces, the redesigned lagoon of ACC makes the mall look like other Ayala malls in Makati—Greenbelt and Glorietta.
“We named it The Terraces because one will walk through a terrace-like ambiance that gives you the feel of being in a resort,” said Cebu Holdings Inc. (CHI) president Francis Monera in a press conference last Thursday.
A foreign architect led the concep-tualization of the design, which is based on intensive market studies. Mall developer CHI believes that The Terraces will click with the Cebu market and contribute to tourism development in Cebu.
“I don’t think there is a similar kind of development anywhere in Cebu. The Terraces is a tourist destination in itself and part of the lifestyle development of Ayala Center Cebu,” Monera said.
P600-million project
The P600-million lagoon re-development project, which was constructed starting March last year, has a total leasable area of about 8,000 square meters that can accommodate 55 merchants.
Around 78 percent of the space is already leased out to tenants. The remaining spaces are still under negotiation, said Monera.
He said The Terraces will house a good mix of Manila-based and home-grown tenants.
These tenants, he said, will include lifestyle stores, like specialty bookstores, spas, restaurants, coffee shops as well as high-end and affordable restaurants.
Since The Terraces is “equipped to operate separately” from the mall, tenants can remain open until after the main mall’s closing time.
With the soft opening in October, about 30 tenants are expected to be operational. The re-designed site’s grand opening will be in the first half of December.
The Terraces, with earth-colored structures and lush landscape, also feature 400 parking slots and a stage that has a capacity to accommodate 2,000 people.
The completion of the ACC’s three-story annex and the makeover of its lagoon area into a food and beverage strip is part of the P850-million expansion project of CHI for the mall.
The expansion project is also part of CHI holding company Ayala Land Inc.’s efforts to show the Ayala mall brand on all its
shopping complexes. Other Ayala malls include Ayala Alabang and Market Market in Taguig, Metro Manila.
The ACC is Ayala Land’s only mall outside Metro Manila. Its gross revenue grew seven percent higher in 2007 and contributed a gross income of P427.7 million to CHI. (NRC)
