The SM Mall of Asia is the largest shopping mall in the Philippines and the 6th largest shopping mall in the world. In terms of gross floor size, it is next to the South Dongguan Mall (China), Golden Resources Mall (China), Central World Plaza (Thailand), Seacon Square (Thailand), Runwal Arcade - Mumbai (India). It opened on May 21, 2006.
It is owned and operated by SM Prime Holdings, under the management of Henry Sy, a Chinese-Filipino business tycoon.
Location and Vicinity
The Mall of Asia was constructed within the reclamation area, west of Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City, aptly nicknamed "Bay City". It is built on 19.5 hectares of reclaimed land and has a gross floor area of 386,224 square meters. The mall is located at the southmost tip of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. A roundabout was constructed in the front of the mall with a huge bronze globe similar to Universal Studios
Physical Details
The SM Mall of Asia mall grounds consists of four buildings interconnected by walkways; the Main Mall, the Entertainment Mall, and the North and South Carpark Buildings.
The Main Mall includes shopping and dining establishments and the food court.
The Entertainment Mall is a two-story complex, a majority of which is open-air, facing Manila Bay.
The mall's 5,000 parking spaces are divided across two, six-story parking buildings conveniently designated the North and South parking buildings. The South Parking building houses the mall's official SM Department Store, while the mall's supermarket, the SM Hypermarket is located within the North Parking building. A major portion of the North Parking building also contains the offices of Dell International Services Philippines (Dell, Inc.).
One of the mall's somewhat-unique features is a 20-seater tram traveling around the mall grounds to ferry shoppers around.
Concierge desks are located in the Main Mall and the Entertainment Mall.
Attractions
The mall includes branches of all of the standard anchor stores found in most of the SM Supermalls. The first-ever branch of Taste Asia, one of the SM Supermalls' food court brands, is located right outside the mall's supermarket, the sprawling SM Hypermart. (Another Taste Asia branch has since opened in SM Supercenter Pasig)
One of the mall’s main attractions is the first ever IMAX theater in the country, along with a Director's Club Theater for intimate screenings (30 La-Z-Boy seats), a Premiere Cinema, and the CenterStage Cinema which can used for live musical concerts and theatrical performances.
In addition to the mall's special theaters, it also has six regular two-tiered movie theaters similar to the ones found in almost every SM Supermall.
The mall features the Philippines's first Olympic-sized ice skating rink. At 61 by 30 meters, the rink is described as the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia. It can accommodate both recreational and competitive figure skating, as well as ice hockey. Along with plain access and skate rentals, the rink's operators also offer training progams in both figure skating and ice hockey. Several ice skating competitions have been held at the mall's ice skating rink.
The mall also provides office space. Dell International Services, a subsidiary of Dell, Inc. occupies a 13,470.5-square meter area at the second floor of the north parking building of the mall.
Construction History
The mall is the centerpiece project of SM Prime at the SM Central Business Park, where five one-story buildings serve as the company's corporate offices. Construction began in mid-2002 right after the completion of a contemporary medical school, dining strip and residential complex at Macapagal Boulevard, adjacent to the SM Central Business Park.
The mall would have opened before Christmas Day of 2005 but had been delayed due to hitches in the delivery of construction materials. Frequent rains in the last quarter of 2005 also delayed the turnover of mall space to tenants. SM Prime decided to move the opening date to March 3, 2006.
Originally, the mall was supposed to have had seven stories. This was later downscaled to only be the two-story superstructure that it is today. The mall was also built at a budget of 7 billion pesos.
On February 27, 2006, local newspaper Manila Standard Today, reported that a team of Pasay City engineers found huge cracks underneath the structure, which was causing the structure to vibrate. [8] When questioned about the inspection, the Pasay City Engineering Department denied making any statement regarding defects in the Mall of Asia. Engineer Edwin Javaluyas, Pasay City engineering officer, in his letter to SM Prime Holdings Inc., said he never stated that the city hall’s engineering department inspected the Mall of Asia on February 23, 2006.
SM Prime however decided to move the opening to May 21 of that year. Jeffrey Lim, corporate information officer of SM Prime Holdings, emphasized that a rescheduling of the mall’s opening was made to give the company an opportunity to allow more tenants to open shops and denied that the change was due to structural defects.
On May 20, 2006, the mall was officially inaugurated by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with a special screening of Everest in the San Miguel Coca-Cola IMAX Theater. The movie was shown three days after tri-athlete Leo Oracion became the first Filipino to reach the treacherous mountain’s summit.
Events Held
An esplanade was constructed at the back of the mall where it served as the observation center for the First World Pyro Olympics in December of 2005.
The second World Pyro Olympics were held at the SM Mall of Asia's boardwalk area in early January, 2007.
The mall's open-air Music Hall directly facing the sea has also held several events, contests and concerts.
Future Plans
Expansion plans
Adjacent to the south parking building, a two-hectare area has been allocated for the site of a 16,000-capacity multi-purpose coliseum/arena for sporting events, concerts and entertainment shows. It is set to rival the 50-year old Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.
In mid-2006, it was announced that a deluxe hotel and a convention center will be built within the Mall of Asia complex.
Also set to the right of the north parking building, The SM i-City is a 69,300-square-meter area allocated to serve as a prime venue for companies engaged in software development and IT-enabled services. A mix of single and multi-storey buildings will be developed to provide for the office and workspace requirements of prospective IT-related locator companies and for support office and backroom operations of business process outsourcing. The first building, OneE-comCenter, began March 8, 2006 and is scheduled for completion in July 2007.
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Born at the turn of the century, National Artist in Architecture Pablo S. Antonio pioneered modern Philippine architecture. His basic design is grounded on simplicity, no clutter. The lines are clean...
The Company is one of the fastest growing property developers in the country whose main focus is the development of high-end condominium projects in Manila.The Company’s very first project, the Lee...
About MatimcoThe year 1963 heralded the birth of Mandaue Timber Company. Founded by Mr. Lim Liu, the small outfit was engaged in selling lumber and wooden cases to soft drink and beer companies in...