Greenbelt, Glorietta, 2 other flagship malls up for renovation

MANILA, Philippines —Ayala Land Inc. is set to unveil a two-year reinvention program for four major shopping malls in Metro Manila and Cebu to help sustain growth as the Zobel-led property giant seeks to double its business by 2028.

Mariana Zobel de Ayala, senior vice president and head of leasing and hospitality at Ayala Land, told reporters they are planning to renovate and expand TriNoma shopping center in Quezon City, the Glorietta and Greenbelt malls in Makati City and Ayala Center Cebu.

Zobel said the mall renovations will be significant and will be rolled out in phases starting this year to minimize disruptions to tenants and mall goers.

“We’ve taken a step back to really understand our target market, what their needs are and what they’re looking for,” she told reporters in a recent interview.

“We’re using those learnings to rethink the physical experience with things like the facade, the navigation through the malls and the stores,” she explained.

Older malls such as the landmark Greenbelt 1, which was built in the late 1980s, will be redeveloped into a more modern commercial complex, the Inquirer previously reported.

Dynamic use of open spaces

Zobel said improvements in the Glorietta portion, which was renovated more than a decade ago, will also involve the creation of car-free spaces by expanding its two parks.

“In most cases, the replanning has resulted in additional leasable area. More importantly, it also resulted in the more dynamic use of our open and common spaces,” she said.

For hotels, Zobel said their goal was to double the footprint of homegrown brand Seda hotels to about 8,000 rooms over the next five years.

“We are adding more hotels in tourist-dense locations,” she said.

Rastine Mackie Mercado, research director at China Bank Securities, said the developer’s expansion will help it capture postpandemic growth drivers such as revenge spending and travel.

“ALI’s focus in further expanding experiential retail across its malls in line with current consumer trends. Furthermore, a strong recurring business also helps support the capex-heavy residential development part of the business over the long term,” he said in an email to the Inquirer.

Ayala Land will also need to expand its real estate development footprint to sustain long-term growth targets.

“In our view, ALI’s acceleration in fresh product launches towards the end of last year is part of the ground work in helping achieve this goal,” Mercado said.

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The article was originally published in Inquirer.NET and written by Miguel R. Camus.