THE New City Commercial Corp. (NCCC) Mall Buhangin, which opened on Sunday, July 22, 2018, promises to give Dabawenyos a better mall experience with upgraded architectural designs and more tenants available.
Lafayette Lim, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LTS Pinnacle Holdings Incorporated, the mother company of the NCCC Group, in a roundtable discussion at the sidelines of the mall’s blessing ceremony, said while the new mall is upgraded, it is still the same homegrown mall that have been known and loved by Dabawenyos.
“It is still the same NCCC, it was just leveled up to serve our customers better. This mall is a tribute to Davao City, it is our way of saying that we have full confidence to the city’s growth and development,” he said.
The 8,100-square meter mall opens first its Supermarket and Department Store, but the entire mall, with all the tenants and cinemas, will be officially launched within the third quarter of this year.
The nearly P1 billion mall is a five-story building with the first floor as the basement car park, the second will be for the supermarket and other retail shops, and the third floor will be intended for department store and other retail shops.
The fourth and fifth floor will house the gadgets and cinema houses respectively.
NCCC Mall Buhangin is constructed in partnership with Asya Design and DMCI Construction as construction partners and is located at Km. 7, Tigatto Road, Buhangin, Davao City.
Associate vice-president of LTS Mall, Inc. Althea Lucas, for her part, said majority of the mall’s spaces are already leased.
She emphasized that with another mall (Gaisano Grand) located beside its property, NCCC is banking on its advantage, being a homegrown company.
“We do not like to say that we are highly competing with each other, we are a different brand, what we are banking on is we are homegrown, we are local, and people can always identify that NCCC is a Davao company,” she said.
Lucas added that NCCC Mall Buhangin will feature a roof garden area, and a high-end “Dolby Atmos” cinemas, a first of its kind in Davao City.
Meanwhile, with two new malls constructed in the area, the mall management acknowledged the public’s traffic concerns and has already placed measures to ease congestion in partnership with the government.
“We are collaborating with the city. Good thing is there will be a bypass road going all the way to diversion road and a road widening project by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). These two ongoing projects can really help solve traffic concerns in the long run,” Lim said.
Asked on what the plans are prepared for its Ma-a property after the deadly fire incident last December 23, 2017, Lim said they are still waiting for the demolition to be finished to jumpstart rebuilding and upgrading the property. Demolition is expected to be completed within this year.
“We cannot divulge the timeline and other further details (about the plan), but we are preparing for it,” he said.
He shared part of the initial plan is to build a condominium near the mall. But he emphasized that they want to focus first on its newly-opened mall in Buhangin.
Lucas also assured that the company has taken extra measures on safety standards and guidelines.