By Arra B. Francia, Reporter

MANDURRIAO, ILOILO CITY — Megaworld Corp. is set to open a P2.2-billion lifestyle mall in this city in April, as it looks to end the year with a total of 18 malls.

Located inside the company’s 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park, Megaworld said the 90,000-square meter (sq.m.) Festive Walk Mall will be the largest and first full-scale mall outside Luzon.

“We are excited to bring our lifestyle mall concept to Iloilo, our first outside of Luzon. This full-scale mall will further expand our offerings in Iloilo Business Park as it matures as a township,” Megaworld Senior Vice-President and Head for Lifestyle Malls Kevin Andrew L. Tan said in a press briefing here on Monday.

Festive Walk Mall will offer around 40,000 sq.m. of net leasable space. The company expects around 75% of the space to be taken up by tenants once it opens, and hopes to raise this to 90% within three months of opening.

Mr. Tan said they are currently talking with the SM group and the Metro Gaisano group to open two supermarkets at Festive Walk Mall. The development will also feature seven cinemas, three activity centers, a children’s playground, and around 1,000 parking slots.

An open space with gardens and greeneries, a chapel, and a dog park will be located at the third level, collectively called The Deck.

Mr. Tan noted Festive Walk would be different from other malls in Iloilo as it would have more food and beverage tenants, pegged at around 30% of total occupants.

“Malls here now are run-of-the-mill shopping malls, grocery, bookstore, that’s it. Here we’re redefining it, providing a round- the-clock lifestyle mall that fits the younger demographic,” the Megaworld executive said.

The mall will also have an annex building connected by the 1.1-kilometer Festive Walk Parade. The annex will house government offices, with the Land Transportation Office, Social Security System, and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. already contracted as tenants.

The company is also in talks with the Bureau of Immigration and Department of Foreign Affairs to set up shop in the annex.

“We’ll have a complete government center in the annex, and we’ll also have medical facilities there that will compete the service offerings,” Mr. Tan said.

The Festive Walk Mall is the first lifestyle mall that Megaworld will be opening this year, bringing the company’s gross floor area to 690,000 square meters from 15 malls.

This year, Megaworld is slated to open malls in Pasig City, Alabang, and Boracay Newcoast.

“Not as big as Iloilo, but smaller formats… so we’ll end the year with 18. We are on track to hit that 28 malls by 2020. We still have more townships being developed right now,” Mr. Tan said.

The mall expansion is part of Megaworld’s efforts to generate P20 billion in recurring income by 2020, of which lifestyle malls will contribute 50%. Business process outsourcing firms will account for the other half.

Megaworld’s net income attributable to the parent grew 11% to P9.98 billion in the first nine months of 2017, following a 5% increase in revenues to P35.4 billion for the period.

Shares in Megaworld dropped 11 centavos or 2.22% to close at P4.85 each at the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.

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This article was first appeared at bworldonline.com