Festival Malls Inc. yesterday topped off the first of 11 structures that will be built in the ten-hectare Il Corso development at the South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu City.
Festival Malls Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Filinvest Land, Inc., is the company behind the development of the commercial strip along SRP that forms part of the 50-hectare development of FLI called City di Mare or city by the sea.
At least two locators have signed contracts to occupy the first building – Building G – which was topped off yesterday. The locators are expected to start operations by the end of the year.
According to FLI senior vice president for commercial center and retail management Joy Polloso, they are set to develop eight hectares of the 10-hectare property which was divided into three areas – the East Zone, Central Piazza and West Zone.
“This area here is the Central Piazza which we target to fully develop by end of this year. The rest of the development is targeted for completion by last quarter of next year in time for the many activities expected to happen in Cebu,” she said.
The Central Piazza, which will have most of the ‘lifestyle’ activities including the ampitheater occupies about three hectares of the whole development while the East Zone will have the big box developments where the supermarkets, hardware and specialty shops will be located.
The West Zone is where the air-conditioned mall will be located. Major local and global brands are expected to set up shop for expansion, according to Polloso.
Once completed, the whole development will have a 55,000 gross floor area or about 33,000 gross leasable area.
“The target is to reach gross floor area of 750,000 square meters by 2018. We have many ongoing projects now but mostly in Metro Manila. We are expanding our Festival Mall. Once that is completed we will have a total of 350,000 square meters of gross floor area,” she said.
Polloso said a lot of interest has been shown by businessmen who want to set up shop there considering that the SRP is being seen as the next activity center in Cebu.
Among the confirmed tenants are Pages Holdings, Inc. which already opened Lantaw in the area, the Urbina family of the Laguna Cafe group and the Anzani Group, who will set up concept shops that fit in Il Corso.
“We are in talks with two to three more shops to open here (in Central Piazza’s building G). Overall, we are looking at about 200 shops to open at Il Corso,” she said.
Il Corso occupies 10 hectares of the 50 hectares joint venture with the Cebu City government and FLI.
The remaining 40 hectares is being developed for the residential segment of the whole development.
Possible Expansions
The Cebu City Council recently granted Mayor Michael Rama authority to sell three lots by public auction in the SRP.
These are the 26-hectare Lot 8, where the templete was built for the 2012 thanksgiving mass for the canonization of St. Pro Calungsod as well as Lots 7 and 17 with a total area of 19.2 hectares.
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