JUST WHEN ONE THOUGHT the Philippines had too many malls, more are coming up.

Encouraged by more rosy projections on the economy and the growing remittances from overseas Filipino workers that fuel domestic consumption, retail chains are betting their money on further expansion.

Inquirer features here some of the leading names in the mall industry and how they plan to compete given the ever stiffening competition for the mall goers' peso.

SM group
The SM group that operates the SM supermalls across the Philippines remains on an aggressive expansion mode.

For this year, the SM group has already opened the SM City Santa Rosa with a gross floor area of 88,000 square meters, SM City Clark, 98,824 square meters, and finally the SM Mall of Asia, arguably the biggest in Southeast Asia with 386,000 square meters.

More will be opened later this year: SM Supercenter Frontera Verde, 28,602 square meters; SM City Lipa, 77,682 square meters and finally, SM City Bacolod, 59,023 square meters.SM vice president Millie Dizon says the SM group remains optimistic about the prospects in the retail industry because there are areas outside the capital of Metro Manila that are rapidly developing, thus, putting up a mall makes sense.

"Our management believes that if we can serve more people and be of service to as many Filipinos as we can, then we will be OK," Dizon says.

The SM group is, understandably, most excited about its Mall of Asia project, not only because of its size but also because of the design.

While other SM malls have been criticized for looking the same, the Mall of Asia, which recently opened along Diosdado Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque, has a design that takes full advantage of its view of the famous Manila Bay sunset.

The Mall of Asia is organized around four blocks: a large central mall, two side parking buildings with the department store and a hypermarket and the entertainment block facing the bay.

It boasts of an IMax theater, the first in the Philippines, an Olympic-size ice skating rink and 800 shops.

Though some analysts have raised their concerns on the viability of such a large mall, Dizon says the group was unperturbed, rather, remains steadfast in its belief that it will succeed, just like the others.

"We have our track record and our experience," she says. "We have always beaten the odds."

Robinsons
Robinsons Land Corp., part of the Gokongwei group of companies and owner of the Robinsons malls, does not take a cookie cutter approach to putting up malls.

This means that one mall is not build to look just like the other, because it believes that each mall should be designed and built around what the community and the market require.

Cornelio S. Mapa Jr., general manager of the commercial centers division of RLC, explains further that by having the flexibility to "play" with the size and design of the mall, Robinsons becomes an intrinsic part of the community around it.

Robinsons counts on its tenant mix as one of its competitive advantage.

"There used to be a time when people just build malls, fill it up with goods and then expect market to just come," Mapa says.

He says that kind of thinking does not apply anymore considering that the market has become more discerning. Customers are now looking for a mall that he or she can be comfortable with and loyal to.

RLC is putting up its Robinsons in Sucat, Parañaque, a suburb in Metro Manila; Lipa, Batangas, a progressive province south of Metro Manila, and Dumaguete, Oriental Negros, a province in the Visayas region, in central Philippines.

"These won't be your regular malls," Mapa says but declined to give details.

The construction of the new malls will go hand in hand with the redevelopment of existing properties as part of the group's thrust to continue reinventing itself.

The Robinsons Place in Ermita, on the other hand, will bring in more of the food outlets in Manila to bring in that bohemian feel and energy that make Malate, an old district in Manila, such a destination.

Mapa says the group can afford to continue expanding because it believes that the local retail industry will continue to prosper.

"The economy is growing and also, there will be an upgrading of the retail experience," he says. "There will be a growth in modern retail and we have all the elements to capture that growth."

Ayala malls
The Ayala malls have earned for the Philippines the distinction of having the best designed mall--the Greenbelt mall in the Makati central business district.

Projects in the pipeline include the retail portion of the Ayala group's Serendra real estate development in the Fort Bonifacio Global City with 6,000 square meters of retail space.

Rowena Tomeldan of the Commercial Centers Group of Ayala Land Inc. says that because the retail space here is small, it will have carefully selected tenants to give consumers a reason to go there.

"It will be a feast for the senses," Tomeldan says of the project which will be in operation by the first quarter of next year.

Then there's the bigger retail area of the Bonifacio Global City itself with 14,000 square meters, which will be anchored by a 40-meter wide and 400-meter long activity park for events, fairs and other activities.

And the bigger Triangle North of Manila project in Quezon City where the Light Rail Transit III line ends, with 200,000 square meters.

Tomeldan describes Trinoma, which should be in place by July next year, as a super regional mall which will bring in the best of retail and entertainment in the Ayala malls to the Quezon City market.

She believes the Quezon City market is underserved and deserves another mall in the area.

Trinoma will also take advantage of its being in a major transport hub.

Another exciting development for the Ayala malls is Greenbelt 5.

"We really thought out of the box for this development and we decided to take advantage of the proximity to the Greenbelt park," Tomeldan says.

She says the group is also especially proud of the section in Greenbelt 5 that will be dedicated to world-class Filipino artists, be it in food or in products.

The completion of Greenbelt 5, the first phase in October next year and the second phase in the first quarter of 2008, will complete the redevelopment of the Greenbelt area.

Completing the list of the Ayala group's major mall development projects is the redevelopment of the Ayala Center in Cebu, the major urban center outside Metro Manila.

Araneta group
The Araneta group has long been content to just maintain its operations within Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City as they are.

Thus, not everyone was convinced that the group will truly fulfill its promise to redevelop the Araneta Center, and in grand style at that.

But the successful opening of the high-end Gateway Mall in October 2004 proved critics wrong.

It has become a destination mall in Quezon City, and Araneta seeks to duplicate its success with the expansion of the Gateway Mall.

"There is that realization that Quezon City is a community with purchasing power," says Araneta group vice president Grace Magno.

Magno says the Araneta group has the additional advantage of being at major crossroads and in a transportation hub.

Aside from expanding the Gateway Mall, there are also plans to improve on where the Rustan's superstore is; the construction of an information technology park and putting up a number of buildings in partnership with Megaworld group.

These programs are part of the multibillion redevelopment of Araneta Center, which started with the refurbishment of the Araneta Coliseum, improvement of the Ali Mall, the country's first air-conditioned mall, the new Farmer's Plaza and then the Gateway mall. Tina Arceo-Dumlao

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