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MANILA PROJECT’S ROUND 2: HEAVYWEIGHT EXPANSION

By Edmund Mander

The Araneta family, which built the stadium where Muhammad Ali beat Joe Frazier in 1975, is planning another “thrilla in Manila,” this time with a giant expansion of its retail-entertainment complex.

Covering 86 acres in the heart of Metro Manila, Araneta Center already is one of the largest retail entertainment mixed-use centers in the Philippines, with its 700,000-square-foot Ali Mall, another 650,000-square-foot shopping center next to an open-air farmers’ market, the 20,000-seat Araneta Coliseum and a 22-story office building.

But Phase 1 of the expansion alone will more than double the leasing area of Araneta Center, which lies on the south side of Quezon City, one of 17 cities and municipalities that make up metro Manila. Contractors are breaking ground on a giant new shopping center, office towers and a hotel.

Its combination of location — the complex will be served by two mass transit stations, a bus station and a convergence of major roads — and content will make Araneta Center the Philippines’ primary shopping destination, according to Robert Solomon, president of Robert Solomon & Associates, a veteran of the U.S. shopping center industry who has been involved in Araneta Center almost since its inception.

“We’ve got the north, the south, the east and the west converging on the center,” said Solomon, whose Tarzana, Calif.-based retail and property development consulting firm is one of several international companies working on the project. Others include the Los Angeles office of RTKL, a U.S. retail design company; U.S.-based retail consultants Jones Lang LaSalle; and Hong Kong-based property services company Colliers Jardine.

Araneta Center, the brainchild of Jose Amado A. Araneta, was groundbreaking back in the 1960s, and not just for the Philippines. The Coliseum, popularly known as “The Dome,” was the biggest in the world and a dramatic centerpiece of the mixed-use complex. Ali Mall, named after the famous boxer, was the first enclosed shopping center in The Philippines when it opened in the 1970s, and it was located catty-corner to a 265,000-square-foot entertainment center called Fiesta Carnival, making Araneta the first retail entertainment center in the world, according to Solomon.

“He had the No. 1 center in the industry,” Solomon said. “I don’t believe there was another shopping center in the world that had this level of retail and entertainment tied into one center.”

However, in more recent years, with the complex overshadowed by the development of other business districts, Araneta Center has lost some of its stature, and in places is run-down and poorly lit.

“It’s a little tired,” Solomon admitted.

But Araneta Center Inc., now under the leadership of Jose’s son Jorge, intends to regain the center’s former glory. And then some. In the next four years the company plans to complete a 3.5 million-square-foot mall, which will connect directly to the two mass transit railway terminals outside the center, and to build nearly 900,000 square feet of offices, a hotel and apartments.

The planned seven-level shopping center, called the Millennium Mall, is to be built around the recently renovated stadium, with 500,000 square feet of shopping on each floor. Besides offering a range of American and European stores new to the Philippines, it will house 366,000 square feet of entertainment tenants, including a full-size ice skating rink, a multiplex cinema and IMAX theater, a bowling alley and a children’s and family entertainment center as well as other attractions, said Solomon.

But the expansion of Araneta Center will not end there: Under a $1.25 billion 20-year master plan, the company intends to turn it into a virtual city within a city, with the development of about 4,000 housing units, additional office and retail space and a giant communications structure — the Manila Tower — that will rival Paris’s Eiffel Tower in height, he said. Offices will be wired with the latest in communications technology.

Phase 1 of the expansion of Manila’s Araneta Center will more than double its leasing area.

The owners also are considering building an additional, 200,000-square-foot mall, which they want to call Manhattan Mall, with housing on top.

Araneta Center Inc., which built, owns and manages the center, is one of several companies in the Araneta Group. Others include Progressive Development Corp., which incubates new businesses; Philippine Pizza, which owns and operates 81 Pizza Hut restaurants across the country; and United Promotions, which runs leisure and entertainment facilities. But Araneta Center is the jewel in the family’s crown, and its renovation and expansion reflect the modernization of the Philippines as a whole, as the country opens its markets to the world.

The center is ideally located to draw traffic, sitting next to two of the city’s busiest avenues — Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue and Aurora Boulevard — and is surrounded by medium-to-high density housing, as well as several universities and colleges. There are 10 million residents in metro Manila, and up to 800,000 people visit the center on weekdays and a million a day on weekends.

The mass transit stations put it just a few minutes ride from other major business districts, including Makati, home of nearly all major Philippine corporations’ headquarters, some of which have been partly responsible for eclipsing Araneta Center in recent years.

The company also intends to broaden the center’s appeal with new tenants. Ali Mall is anchored and leased by local tenants, including the 840,000-square-foot Shoemart store built in 1979, Rustans supermarket and department store, a bookstore and many other moderate price-level stores. Millennium Mall, which will house about 750 retailers, will bring in stores from the United States, Europe and Japan, taking advantage of trade reform legislation passed last year that lifted a ban on overseas retail chains. There will be stores selling fashion, household merchandise, books, music, toys, sporting goods, hardware and computers, as well as more than 100 tenants offering food and beverages, including Starbucks, McDonald’s and Jollibee, a Philippines-based fast-food restaurant. The company is in talks with Wal-Mart, which is scouting around for its first location in the Philippines, and also is eyeing Carrefour, J.C. Penney and tenants like Old Navy, Solomon said.

“To me this is a great challenge, a great opportunity,” he said.

Araneta Center Inc. is off to a running start with the center’s revitalization, having already renovated Araneta Coliseum, one of the center’s original structures, which opened in 1960. Today it is a venue for a range of sports, entertainment and community activities, including family shows, religious gatherings — Pope John Paul II addressed an audience there — basketball tournaments and international cockfighting derbies.

Farmers Plaza, a mall attached to one of the transit stops, was built in 1969 and rebuilt in 1988. A five-level complex, it was expanded and renovated last year, and today offers 647,000 square feet of retail and a food court.

Next to it is the Farmers Market, with 700 stalls offering vegetables, meat and seafood. “People from all walks of life living in and around Manila shop here,” Solomon said, describing the Farmers Market as the cleanest fresh food market in the country.

A lot of work also will go into the center’s public spaces during Phase 1, making Araneta Center a lot more pleasant to walk around; currently, like much of the rest of Manila, it is choked by vehicles of all sorts, from Jeepneys — WWII style Jeeps converted into long-wheelbase taxis — to cars and buses. While architects are not about to challenge the motor vehicle’s tyranny at street level, they are going to lift pedestrians clear of the chaos below by constructing a vast walkway connecting the center’s various components, complete with trees and benches.

“You’ll be greeted by a pedestrian-friendly retail experience that has a series of garden spaces,” said John Tindall, associate vice president and project manager at RTKL for the Araneta Center contract. “We are trying to do something that’s pretty cutting edge.” Pedestrian walkways will connect directly to Farmers Plaza and Shoemart, he added. “The whole shopping center will essentially be lifted above the street,” said Sudhakar Thakurdesai, a former senior vice president at RTKL who worked on the project.

The pedestrian area and the mass transit connectors also will help neutralize the traditional disadvantages of a multilevel center by connecting with the mall’s third and fourth stories, Solomon said.

“They’ll be several ground levels,” he explained.

RTKL also is ascribing themes to the various levels, putting entertainment on the top two floors, for example, and dedicating two other levels to fashion, explained Darryl Yamamoto, RTKL’s lead designer on the project.

Phase 1 is expected to take about four years to complete. When it is done, the renovation’s impact will be felt well beyond the extensive boundaries of Araneta Center, those involved in the project say.

“Our vision was to create a gateway to Quezon City,” Thakurdesai said. “The location is unique, and when this is done I really think this is going to become a gateway and an icon.”

 

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