SM unveils 88th Philippines mall, 2 more to open this year

MANILA, Philippines — The SM Group, the country’s largest mall operator, is reinforcing further its supremacy in the retail sector with the opening this month of its first new shopping center for 2025, with two more planned for launch at the latter part of the year.

SM Supermalls president Steven Tan told The STAR the group is set to open SM City Laoag on May 30.

SM City Laoag will add an additional 113,000 square meters gross floor area (GFA) to SM Prime Holdings Inc.’s nationwide portfolio and will be the group’s 88th mall in the country.

It is the first of three new malls SM Prime has lined up for opening this year, with the other two being SM City La Union and SM City Zamboanga.

“La Union will open by the latter part of the year, around September or October, and Zamboanga is set to open by November or December. But you never know, it might slide into the first quarter (of 2026) but as of now, it is still on the last quarter of the year for Zamboanga,” Tan said.

SM City La Union is expected to provide 112,000 square meters of GFA, while SM City Zamboanga will add 91,000 square meters of GFA.

Last year, SM Prime opened SM City Caloocan and SM City J Mall in Mandaue City, Cebu, which added almost 200,000 square meters of GFA in the company’s mall portfolio.

A total of P21 billion has been allotted for the expansion of SM Supermalls’ GFA this year.

Aside from additional GFA to be provided by new developments, a total of 124,488 square meters of existing mall space will also undergo redevelopment.

SM Prime malls covered almost all of the key cities in Metro Manila, accounting for 41 percent of the company’s total GFA in the Philippines.

As it moves to achieve a milestone of 100 malls in the Philippines by the end of 2027, SM Prime’s mall expansion is currently geared toward the provinces.

The company said the focus is to cover most of Northern Luzon, Visayas and the progressive cities in Mindanao moving forward.

On top of strengthening its presence in key areas, Tan said SM’s expansion strategy is also focused on curating an optimal tenant mix and continuously evolving with its customers to meet their changing needs and aspirations.

SM Supermalls ended 2024 with 87 malls and a total of 22,579 tenant stores.

In China, SM Prime also operates eight malls with a total GFA of 1.7 million square meters.