Two Philippine fast-food titans team up to build a shopping mall empire
Two Philippine fast-food titans team up to build a shopping mall empire
The SM Group connection will undoubtedly help
Ask anyone in Manlia where they go shopping over the weekend and the responses are likely to be unanimous: Ayala, SM, and Robinsons shopping malls
But that could soon change.
Double Dragon, the property development firm owned by the founders of Mang Inasal and Jollibee Foods Corp, Edgar Sia and Tony Tan Caktiong, is planning to construct 100 CityMalls around the archipelago by 2020. With 53 sites around the country already earmarked for these retail centres, Double Dragon could be looking at a total leasable space of 1 million square metres.
Sprawling from 5,000 to 10,000 square metres, CityMalls are designed as community malls that serve as lynchpins for their surrounding neighborhoods rather than titanic complexes on the scale of SM MegaMall or Ayala’s Greenbelt. The eight existing CityMall branches are located in provincial cities such as Roxas, Imus, and Zamboanga, communities not yet served by established retail players like Ayala Land and Robinsons Land.
Double Dragon’s stock has surged 140 percent: the best performer on the Philippine Stock Exchange’s property subindex to date this year. On Friday, Double Dragon shares hovered at 59 pesos, the Nikkei Asian Review reported.
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While it does not intend to corner the markets served by those corporations, Double Dragon is exploiting its connection to SM Prime Holdings as a first-mover advantage in those underserved communities. SM Group owns a 34 percent stake in Double Dragon, ensuring the mall operator’s tenancy in CityMalls.
In addition to its provincial pivot, Double Dragon is developing a 4.75-hectare mixed-use project called The Meridian Park near SM’s Mall of Asia. The centerpiece is a 90,200-square-metre business process outsourcing (BPO) campus, which will start construction by the last quarter of the year. Upon its completion in 2020, The Meridian Park will offer serviced apartments.
Double Dragon is developing the community malls in conjunction with its forays into residential property development, which include successful projects such as W.H. Taft Residences, a 31-storey condominium block beside the De La Salle University and The SkySuites Tower, a 38-storey block where EDSA and Quezon Avenue intersect.
“I really like the [real estate]business, but it needs substantial resources,” Sia told the Nikkei Asian Review earlier this month.
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Source: Property Report