TO THOSE who frequent Carbon Public Market, don’t be surprised if, in the future, the place will no longer have the same look, smell and feel.
A proposal that reached Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella intends to modernize Carbon market and turn it into a supermarket.
Labella said Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019, that the management of SM Supermarkets plans to improve the state of the Carbon market, known as the oldest and largest market in Cebu City.
It is located on M.C. Briones St., Barangay Ermita, in downtown Cebu City. It has three units or structures.
Labella said SM plans to construct a supermarket that will have three floors.
The first floor will have the stalls, second floor will be for parking, and third floor for the loading and unloading of goods.
The structure will replace the current Unit 1, the wet market for meat and sea products; Unit 2, which remains under construction; and Unit 3, area for the fruits but this was damaged when fire hit its second floor last year.
Initially agreed upon, Labella said, was that the land and the new structure would still be owned by the Cebu City Government. He added that 60 percent of the space will be for the City while 40 percent will be for SM to turn into a supermarket, without rent.
Labella did not say how long the SM would not pay rent. But SM will pay all the regulatory fees and taxes to the City Government, he added.
Labella also said Carbon market vendors do not have to worry because they will be accommodated in the new structure.
Market stall owners currently pay the City Government P1,000 a month. The mayor did not state the status of the proposal, in what form it was made, and the expected date for the supermarket to start operations.
Labella said that what SM will set up will be similar to the one in Dasmariñas, Cavite.
A Facebook page on the SM Marketmall Dasmariñas describes it as “the first public-private partnership between a City Government and SM Prime Holdings that features a vertical wet and dry market development complemented by mall facilities.”
The mayor said nothing is final as the plan will have to be studied before it is presented to the City Council for approval.