Here we are thinking that online shopping is about to accelerate the death of malls — apparently not in the Philippines, where there is still a need for more temples of consumer culture.
SM Prime Holdings is building seven new malls in 2017, thankfully not in the overcrowded parts of the metro, but in provincial areas.
The biggest mall will open in Cagayan de Oro with 81,133 square meters.
There will also be projects in Puerto Princesa, Urdaneta, Ormoc, Tuguegarao, and Antipolo.
The new malls will add a total of 293,930 square meters in additional leasable space, bringing SM’s total mall leasable area to 7.95 million square meters, ABS-CBN News reports.
If all seven projects push through, SM will have a total of 67 malls in the country by the end of 2017.
