AYALA LAND, Inc. (ALI) said it is opening new malls this year with about 78,000 square meters (sq.m.) of retail space as the property developer banks on surging foot traffic.
“We’re opening new malls this year. We are opening about 78,000 sq.m. of retail space,” ALI Head of Leasing and Hospitality Mariana Zobel de Ayala said during a media event in Makati City on Thursday.
“We’re going to be opening the first phase of our mall in Imus City, Cavite. We have Park Triangle in Bonifacio Global City. We also have the first phases of Solenad 4 and Arca South, which are going to be quite a different concept from a mall perspective,” she added.
Ms. Zobel said ALI has about 700,000 square meters (sq.m.) of mall space under planning or construction.
“Including the renovations, we have about 700,000 sq.m. of mall space that’s currently either under planning or construction,” she said.
“We have a lot of conviction in the market. We have a lot of conviction in the Filipino consumer,” she added.
Ms. Zobel said Ayala Malls saw a 10% growth in foot traffic last year, without disclosing specific figures.
“We were very excited by the growth we saw in foot traffic last year. We saw 10% growth year on year. That was quite promising,” she said.
“Our newer malls like One Ayala showed about five times increase in sales, and for Manila Bay, we showed almost doubling in sales,” she added.
Meanwhile, Ms. Zobel said that ALI has identified about 30,000 sq.m. of retail space that will be “refreshed in terms of concept.”
She added that the ongoing renovations of its Glorietta, Ayala Center Cebu, Trinoma, and Greenbelt are on track.
“As of this month, most of those renovations are between 40% and 60% complete. The renovations are on track, and it’s creating a lot of excitement with our tenants,” she said.
On the hospitality segment, Ms. Zobel said that ALI has about 2,000 rooms in the pipeline “between construction and under planning.”
She added that the renovations of Holiday Inn (Makati), Seda BGC, Seda Abreeza in Davao, and Seda Centrio in Cagayan de Oro will be completed by the third quarter, while the revamp of Lagen Island resort in Palawan is ongoing.
The 280-room Mandarin Oriental in Makati is also expected to open next year, Ms. Zobel said.
“We see a lot of potential in both domestic tourism and also bringing in more regional tourists,” she said.
Ms. Zobel added that ALI’s office segment has performed above industry averages.
“The market vacancies that we’re seeing are about 20%, and in our case, our lease out is 92%,” she said.
Meanwhile, ALI Chief Finance Officer Augusto D. Bengzon said the company is in negotiations to buy the Makati property where the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) business school is located.
“We’re negotiating for it. We’re buying it from the AIM foundation. They need a bigger campus,” he said.
AIM is located on a one-hectare land provided by ALI’s parent company Ayala Corp.
ALI shares declined by 0.61% or 15 centavos to P24.5 apiece on Thursday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave