ALI to open Entertainament City mall in 2017

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), the property giant of conglomerate Ayala Corp., is expected to open next year its new mall in Paranaque within the 100-hectare Entertainment City of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), city Mayor Edwin Olivarez said over the weekend.

The Ayala mall would rise on a nine-hectare property of the Wenceslao Group under a 35-year lease agreement, according to documents submitted to the local government of Paranaque.

Olivarez said the opening of ALI’s 600,000 square meter mall, which is bigger than the SM’s Mall of Asia, would add P500-to P700-million yearly to the city’s coffers.

ALI’s planned shopping mall, once completed would become the country’s largest commercial complex. The company will also develop a business process outsourcing building and a 12-story hotel with at least 325 rooms within the property.

The property is located right across the City of Dreams Manila which is owned by the Melco Crown group of Macau and the SM Group’s Belle Corp.

The entry of the Ayala group at the Entertainment City effectively brings together some of the country’s biggest business groups in the area which already has two casino complexes in operation: The City of Dreams and Solaire Resorts and Casino of ports tycoon Enrique Razon.

Olivarez said the opening of the two casinos have contributed the biggest chunk to the local government’s revenue collection.

In his fourth State-of-City address, Olivarez reported that Belle Corp. and Solaire Resort have paid real property tax amounting to P191 million in 2015. 

City of Dreams, which soft-opened in December 2014 and had a grand opening in February last year, paid P135.9 million while Bloomberry, developer of Solaire paid P55 million in real property tax last year, respectively.

Other top business taxpayers were the D.M. Wenceslao and Associates Inc. (DMWAI), project developer of Entertainment City, and the Manila Bay Development Corp. (MBDC), a construction consultancy and management firm.

DMWAI paid P46.6 million while MBDC added P34.9 million in real tax payment, data from the local government also showed.

Olivarez reported that firms which registered or renewed their licenses in 2014 totaled 19,477 an increase of 14 percent from the previous year. In 2015, he said, there were 20,679 registered business permits.

In the first six months of this year, a big majority or 19,547 businesses were registered at the local business permits and licensing office and this is projected to increase by 21 percent until last quarter, according to the mayor.

“This is a clear affirmation of the soundness of our policy. We don’t need new taxes in Paranaque,” Olivarez said.

He said the entry of the business units and multinational companies has “increased the city’s annual income to P5 billion last year compared to P2 billion collection during the previous administration.