Central Bloc to feature homegrown brands

CEBU, Philippines — Central Bloc, Ayala Malls’ second shopping facility in Cebu, will feature unique homegrown brands that will pique the interest of the young consumers at the IT Park.  Ayala Malls VisMin head Clavel Tongco said the mall will showcase a lot of new things in retail, such as homegrown brands that have good market potential, and other specialty stores that are new to the Cebu market.

Unlike its sister mall Ayala Center Cebu, the Central Bloc will have different character as its mixed tenants are carefully chosen to cater the needs of the young working class in the BPO-dense area.

With the BPO sector as its main target market, Central Bloc’s store hours are from 11 in the morning to 11 in the evening. Some tenants may opt for 24-hour operations but that is still being studied, Tongco said.

Soft opening of the mall is set before the year ends. About 100 stores will also be opened, said Bong Dy, general manager of Ayala Center Cebu.

The mall has over 200 available store spaces, excluding kiosks and carts.  Ayala Malls Central Bloc is the fifth Ayala regional mall in Visayas and Mindanao. The mall is integrated with a hotel and office buildings.

The five-storey mall is 100 percent complete, however the management is still waiting for the completion of the construction of the tenants’ stores.  The Central Bloc development has 45,000 square meters of retail gross leasable area (GLA) and an office GLA of 72,000 sqm.

Developed by Central Bloc Developers, Inc., the development will also give rise to two new BPO office towers.

Meanwhile, Colliers International Philippines projects that from 2019 to 2021, Cebu will see the completion of about 259,000 sq meters (2.8 million sq feet) of new retail supply. This should expand Metro Cebu’s stock to 1.3 million sq meters (14 million sq feet) by the end of 2021, about 25 percent higher from its stock in 2018.

According to the report, the rising purchasing power of households and employees is enticing retailers to occupy more space that prompted developers to build more shopping malls and pocket retail hubs. (FREEMAN)