SM City Iloilo holds the distinction of being Iloilo's premier shopping destination. And this 2015, it gets bigger and better with the opening of its two expansion projects - Northwing expansion mall and Southpoint dining strip.
With around 4 months to go before the scheduled openings of these expansions, SM City Iloilo held a Tenant's Preview that gave some of the country’s top retailers, restaurants & fastfood chains and service centers an opportunity to have to have a clear picture of things to come.
The Northwing expansion mall will be a 4-storey building with a gross leasable area of 21,124 sqm. It will be home to 165 new tenants bringing the total of the malls tenants to 365 when its fully leased out.
Though there were no specifics of which stores are already "in the bag" or spaces that have already leased out, they were just labeled as "global fashion, dining, affiliate, wellness, cyberzone and amusement". Thus it will be open to a lot of speculations of which brands will be coming to SM City Iloilo.
The Lower Ground floor will have two access points from the outside and two from the main mall. The "affiliate" store space below could be Ace Hardware since the original one will become part of the corridor. The interiors could be Our Home since it might be relocating on the new wing for SM Storyland is expected to expand. What are some SM affiliate stores can you think of?
The Upper Ground Floor is a toss up between fashion and food. Rumored global fashion stores are Forever 21 and Uniqlo among others. For restaurants, there could by Hukad (by Golden Cowrie), Kuya J's, Mesa Filipino Moderne and others (hoping for another Breadtalk Store soon). It also shares the same access points for the outside and also has its two own entry points to the existing mall. Which restos and global fashion stores would you like to be see in Iloilo?
The Second Floor will have an access to the cinema level and its almost all global fashion brands with a single yet big space for dining. The dining space is reserved for the Food Hall which is an upscale version of a food court with more "plush" furniture and more "branded" tenants. Its perfect after watchign a movie since the cinema is just a few steps away.
The Third floor can only be accessed through the escalators from the 2nd floor but in the future, it may have another access if the space occupied now by Teletech becomes part of the mall. SM is rumored to build a BPO tower beside Injap Tower - taller than 21 storeys they say. This floor will all be about gadget and telecom stores - plus all things related to them. Half is reserved for amusement. So most of these stores might come from the old wing for them to to be grouped.
With the on-going competition with other developers just around the corner, these two developments (and others coming soon) by SM City Iloilo solidifies is stand as Iloilo's premier shopping destination!