KAPAMPANGANS now have more shopping, leisure, and entertainment excitement to look forward to as SM Telabastagan on Friday opened its doors to the public, marking its third mall in the City of San Fernando and SM Prime Holdings’ 70th mall in the Philippines.

The newly-opened shopping hub is the fourth SM mall in the province, after SM City Clark, as well as SM City Pampanga and SM City San Fernando Downtown—both of which are also located in the province’s capital city touted as the “Christmas Capital of the Philippines.”

Located in one of the strategic places in the City of San Fernando, SM City Telabastagan will cater to the residents and clienteles from the uptown part of the city, as well as those from around the Angeles City proper, and the towns of Porac, Guagua and Bacolor.

SM City Telabastagan has a lot area of 55,093 square meters and stands in a 105,694 square-meter site along MacArthur Highway just a few meters away from the Fil-Am Friendship Road which is the gateway to the FVR Megadike and Clark Freeport Zone.

With its unique features and dynamic design, the two-story mall which boasts of a wide array of shopping, multicultural dining, and entertainment zones with its over 150 stalls, aims to give its shoppers upgraded malling experience.

It takes prides of its major anchors, the SM Store, SM Supermarket, SM Appliance Center, ACE Hardware, Watsons, Our Home, Surplus, Uniqlo, Crocs, and Miniso, alongside popular local and international fashion and sports brands, jewelry stores, bookstores, eyewear stores, and novelty shops. A Cyberzone features the latest IT and electronic goods.

Being at the Culinary Capital of Philippines, SM City Telabastagan will delight foodies with its selection of homegrown cuisine from Toll House, Susie’s Cuisine, Velvet Ganache, U-Rack, Balanghai, Dainty, Red Woodberry Café and Pancakes, Jalapenos Tex-Mex, Teresita Razon’s Halo Halo and Palabok, Tapa Tapa, Pancake ni Juan, and Kabigting’s Halo Halo. These, in addition to the mall’s spacious Food Court and variety of fast food chains, coffee shops, bakeshops, and specialty restaurants.

The mall also has banks, wellness areas, and amusement centers to serve customers of all ages. It also has six state of the art cinemas for families and film enthusiasts.

According to SM Supermalls assistant vice president for operations Junias Eusebio, Pampanga has always been one of the most special locations for SM malls, with the longest mall in the country, SM City Pampanga, situated here, and now having the most number of SM malls in one province.

“It’s about the rich culture of Pampanga. The Kapampangans’ love for festivals, their love of food and many more is maybe the reason why the SM Supermalls continue to grow here in this very province,” Eusebio said.

Meanwhile, to address the feared traffic build up in the already congested portion of MacArthur Highway here, Eusebio said that the mall management has specifically designated a service road stretching along the mall’s facade.

The 900-meter service road is a two-lane road parallel to MacArthur Highway and will prevent queuing of vehicles coming in and out of the mall along the main thoroughfare, Eusebio said.

“We are in close coordination with the city government to implement other projects that will help ease the traffic flow around the mall vicinity. And we are very much thankful to Mayor Edwin Santiago for helping us come up with solutions as part of corporate social responsibilities,” he said.

Santiago personally welcomed the new investment of the SM Prime Holdings in this city, along with the thousands of job opportunities that it will generate for Fernandinos and Kapampangans.

He noted that the continuous pour of investments SM Prime Holdings and other huge companies affirm that the City of San Fernando is indeed one of the most business-friendly cities in the country.

“SM City Pampanga became a place where Fernandinos and people from the third and fourth districts of Pampanga meet. Now, SM Prime Holdings provided us another venue where Fernandinos, Angeleños and Kapampangans from the second district can meet and we are very much thankful for that,” he said.