SM City Cebu, also known as SM Cebu or sometimes SM Mabolo, and locally as SM City, is a large

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located in

Cebu City, Philippines Cebu City, officially the City of Cebu ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Sugbo; fil, Lungsod ng Cebu; hil, Dakbanwa sang Sugbo), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines and capital of the Cebu Province. Acco ...

. It is the 4th shopping mall owned and developed by SM Prime Holdings, the country's largest shopping mall owner and developer. It is the company's first shopping mall outside of Metro Manila and the fifth largest shopping mall in the Philippines.SM Prime nets P1.5 B in Q1, up 11%

Manila Bulletin The ''Manila Bulletin'' (), (also known as the ''Bulletin'' and previously known as the ''Manila Daily Bulletin'' from 1906 to September 23, 1972, and the ''Bulletin Today'' from November 22, 1972, to March 10, 1986) is the Philippines' largest ...

, May 9, 2007 It has a land area of and a

gross floor area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

of SM Prime Holdings - SM City Cebu
retrieved April 13, 2008SM Prime Holdings 2007 Annual Report
/ref> On an average day, more than 100,000 people visit SM City Cebu, with the figure increasing to 140,000 to 150,000 on weekends.Cebuanos develop shopping, leisure habits

Philippine Daily Inquirer The ''Philippine Daily Inquirer'' (''PDI''), or simply the ''Inquirer'', is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines. Founded in 1985, it is often regarded as the Philippines' newspaper of record. The newspaper is the most awarded bro ...

, May 21, 2004 Due to Cebu City's position as a transshipment point for the

Visayas The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands (Bisayan languages, Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; tl, Kabisayaan ), are one of the three Island groups of the Philippines, principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao ...

and

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

, and SM City Cebu's location close to the city's port area, the mall attracts a significant number of transient shoppers.

History

Development

The mall, the first

SM Supermall SM Supermalls, also simply known as SM, owned by SM Prime, is a chain of shopping malls in the Philippines that as of November 18, 2022 has #Exiting malls, 82 malls located across the country and #Future malls, 20 more scheduled to be opened for ...

outside of

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

, opened on November 27, 1993, with an gross floor area of . It was seen as catering to the broad low- and middle-class shoppers, in contrast to its upscale competitor, the

Ayala Corporation Ayala Corporation (Spanish: ''Corporación Ayala'', formerly ''Ayala y Compañía'' (Ayala & Company)) is the publicly listed holding company for the diversified interests of the Ayala Group. Founded in the Philippines by Domingo Róxas and A ...

-owned

Ayala Center Cebu Ayala Center Cebu is a large shopping mall owned by Ayala Malls at the Cebu Business Park in Cebu City, Philippines. It is the first Ayala mall located outside of Metro Manila. It opened in November 1994, one year after their rival mall, SM City ...

which opened a few months later. Located in Cebu City's North Reclamation Area, then a quiet and relatively remote part of the city, the mall had Manila-based movie and television stars and entertainers perform free concerts at the mall to attract shoppers. Free jeepney rides to the mall were also offered to fulfill the lack of available public transportation within the area.

Northwing

Construction on SM City Cebu's expansion building, dubbed the Northwing, began in March 2006.SM City Cebu to build 5-story annex by March

Sun.Star ''SunStar'' (also written as ''Sun Star''), stylized as SUNSTAR (formerly SUN•STAR), is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines. The newspaper is based in Cebu City. Regional * SunStar Cebu * SunStar Davao * SunStar Manila ''Sun ...

Cebu, February 21, 2006 The expansion, which was developed at a cost of 1.3 billion (US$30.5 million), was built on the parking lot to the north of the existing building, temporarily decreasing the number of parking spaces by more than 30%.SM opens P1.3B wing

Cebu, December 1, 2007 Construction of the Northwing started in April 2006, and opened in November 30, 2007. It increased the total gross floor area of SM City Cebu by , for a total of . The first 2 floors are for the mall's expansion, while the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors are for the indoor carpark including the roof deck.

Northwing Expansion

An expansion is planned for the Northwing, which will also include two 20-storey office buildings intended to cater to

business process outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

companies, as well as a 9-storey building which will house a campus of

National University A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state. Some national universities are associated with national cultural or po ...

. It is set to be completed by 2025.

Design

SM City Cebu is a seven-level complex namely lower ground floor, upper ground floor, second floor, third floor, fourth floor, fifth floor, and roof deck featuring a total of eight cinemas with seven regular cinemas and one

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...

theater with a total seating capacity of 5,812, a food court, a fully computerized bowling center, 8,000-square meter amusement center, and a 2,000-square meter trade hall. Prior to the addition of the Northwing, it had a car park capacity of 1,629. The Northwing expansion, opened in 2007, features two floors of retail stores, restaurants, and cafes. It houses more than 200 tenants and caters to a more upscale clientele. The expansion also added three levels of covered parking, and a one level of roof deck parking. The

Cebu North Bus Terminal The Cebu North Bus Terminal (CNBT) is a bus station in Cebu City, Philippines operated by the Cebu Provincial Government which serves as a hub for buses servicing northern Cebu. CNBT was previously located in a lot owned by the Mandaue city gove ...

is currently situated inside the compound opposite the mall's parking area with the lot granted by SM Prime for free for a period of two years, after its lease in its former location in Subangdaku,

Mandaue City Mandaue (), officially the City of Mandaue ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Mandaue; fil, Lungsod ng Mandaue), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 364,116 ...

expired in early 2020. It was officially opened on October 12, 2020 with full operations starting on October 15, 2020.

References

External links

SM City CebuSM Prime Holding
{{Cebu City Shopping malls in Cebu City Shopping malls established in 1993 SM Prime 1993 establishments in the Philippines Buildings and structures in Cebu City