SM Megamall

SM Megamall (simply known as Megamall), is the third largest shopping mall in the Philippines and the thirteenth largest in the world that is developed and operated by SM Prime Holdings.[2] It is located in EDSA corner Doña Julia Vargas Avenue, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The mall occupies a land area of approximately 10 hectares (25 acres) and has a total floor area of 474,000 square meters (5,100,000 sq ft).[3] The mall has a maximum capacity of 4 million people.[4]

SM Megamall
SM Megamall logo
Megamall Back Entrance
LocationWack-Wack Greenhills, Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines
Coordinates14°35′04.01″N 121°03′24.38″E
AddressEDSA corner Doña Julia Vargas Avenue, Ortigas Center
Opening dateJune 28, 1991 (1991-06-28)
DeveloperSM Prime Holdings
ManagementSM Prime Holdings
ArchitectAntonio Sindiong & Arquitectonica
No. of stores and services968 shops, including over 500 retail shops and over 280 dining outlets
No. of anchor tenants18
Total retail floor area474,000 m2 (5,100,000 sq ft) (2015)[1]
No. of floorsMega A & B: 5 (+ 1 basement level)
Mega C: 11 (Parking at 2F-7F)
Mega Fashion Hall (Mega D): 5 + 2-level basement carpark
Parking4,200+
Public transit accessMetro interchange 3 Ortigas
Metro interchange 3 Shaw Boulevard
Bus rapid transit  E  Ortigas
WebsiteSM Megamall

History

Henry Sy Sr. through First Asia Realty loaned ₱1 billion from the Philippine National Bank and Citibank, an unprecedented amount at the time, in April 1989 to fund the development of SM Megamall.[5] The mall began construction in 1989 and opened its doors on June 28, 1991. It is the third SM Supermall ever built by Sy after the SM City Sta. Mesa and SM North EDSA. The SM Megamall was the largest mall in the country for a 17-year period, but when the SM Mall of Asia was built in 2006, it was ranked third largest in the country by floor area at that time, measuring 331,679 m2 (3,570,160 sq ft) of total retail floor area and after SM City North EDSA (which ranks first in the country and second in the world). It also boasted the first ice skating rink, which was temporarily removed in 2009 but was replaced by the new skating rink at a new location in 2014, as well as one of the first trade halls, the Mega Trade Hall, in the country. The new skating rink was the venue for the speed skating and figure skating at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.[6][7]

Since its inception in 1991, SM Megamall expanded with the addition of the Mega Atrium in 2008, Building C in 2011 and the Mega Fashion Hall in 2014, bringing the total retail floor area to 474,000 m2 (5,100,000 sq ft). In 2018, SM partnered with Cal-Comp Technology (Philippines) Inc. for the provision of its New Era AI (Artificial Intelligence) Robotic service robots stationed at SM Megamall by the first quarter of 2019.[8]

Location

The mall is located in the Ortigas Center, one of Metro Manila's premier central business districts and shopping hubs, at the portion encompassed by Mandaluyong City. It stands along the main EDSA thoroughfare and Doña Julia Vargas Avenue. The mall is almost adjacent to the Ortigas MRT station and EDSA Carousel's Ortigas station, as well as the Shaw Boulevard MRT station. The mall is also located to nearby malls such as the Robinsons Galleria, St. Francis Square, The Podium, the Shangri-La Plaza, and Starmall EDSA Shaw and landmarks such as the Asian Development Bank Headquarters, Saint Pedro Poveda College, University of Asia and the Pacific, BDO Corporate Center, The Podium West Tower and the San Miguel Corporation Headquarters.

Buildings

The mall currently has 968 shops and is separated into five buildings, namely Building A, Building B, Building C; Building D, which is also known as the Mega Fashion Hall; and the Mega Atrium.

Main Mall
Building A atrium

The mall has two main buildings. Building A features the 12 digital cinemas on the third floor; a food court, events hall and the Toy Kingdom on the lower ground floor, art stores on the fifth floor, and other anchor tenants. It also features Forever 21 located on the second level of Building A. Building B features SM Store, the Ace Hardware store on the lower ground floor, the Cyberzone on the fourth floor, the Mega Trade Hall on the fifth floor, and other anchor tenants. It has been expanded and has direct connections with the Mega Fashion Hall which opened in January 2014. The SM Supermarket is featured on both buildings. The bridgeway connecting the two main buildings of the mall contains several eateries.

Mega Atrium

The 16,000 m2 (170,000 sq ft) Mega Atrium is an addition to the existing two buildings. The Atrium, completed in 2008, bridges the gap between Buildings A and B. It features Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord, a 1,585 m2 (17,060 sq ft) Roman Catholic chapel located on the fifth floor, as well as various shops and restaurants. The atrium also features the Garden at Mega Atrium, an indoor garden located within the second floor, and also includes the Respira Café, a coffee and pastry shop offering European confectionaries.[9]

Building C
A driveway between Building C and the Main Mall

Building C is a recent addition to SM Megamall that houses office space on the upper levels of the carpark and a transport terminal, which includes an integrated bus terminal serving the north of Metro Manila including CAMANAVA, Quezon City and further to Bulacan and Calabarzon. Formerly Building A's open-parking facility, it is located near EDSA to the west of Building A and was opened on October 11, 2011. The building also contains the 1,300-square-meter (14,000 sq ft) DFA CO NCR-East, the first passport office of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Metro Manila which opened in August 2012.[10]

Mega Fashion Hall (Building D)
The Mega Fashion Hall

The Mega Fashion Hall is the latest expansion of SM Megamall. Featuring a two-level basement parking and a five-level mall with 86,000 m2 (930,000 sq ft) of retail, it houses several global clothing retailers, an events hall, and additional restaurants and shops, including the three-level H&M store and the three-level Uniqlo which extends to the two uppermost levels of Building B. Aside from clothing stores, the expansion includes dining establishments, houseware stores, service shops, and a Bingo area on the fifth level. The Mega Fashion Hall also houses an IMAX Digital theater (which is also the eighth IMAX cinema in the country), a 56-seat Director's Club Cinema with butler service, an Olympic-sized ice skating rink (replacing the one removed in 2009 from the lower-ground level of Building A), an upscale food court (Mega Food Hall), and a 14-lane bowling center, the SM Bowling Center (also replacing the one removed in 2009 from the lower-ground level of Building A, now Toy Kingdom) . The fashion hall also features the BTS Pop-Up Store, located at the mall's third floor, and showcases over 400 BTS-branded products.[11]

Time Sculpture

The Time Sculpture is a sculpture located fronting the Mega Fashion Hall. The sculpture was unveiled on August 2, 2021, and is designed by Filipino-American public artist Jefre Manuel Figueras, also known as JEFRË, and was made of stainless steel. The sculpture is part of the Baks "Box" Series, where he gives representation to people living in cities around the world, and resembles a man looking at his watch, which serves as reminder how time is important in our lives and to make use of time in traffic productively. JEFRË also converted the statue's head to a block, which connects the figures to surrounding urban architecture, and strengthens the image that people are a city's major component as the building blocks and the bloodline of the city.[12][13]

Expansion

After the soft opening of the newly constructed Building C Carpark, the mall surpassed SM Mall of Asia by 2,000 m2 (22,000 sq ft) and became the second largest shopping mall in the country.

With the opening of the Mega Fashion Hall (Building D), the current gross leasable area is 500,000 m2 (5,400,000 sq ft), allowing the mall to reclaim the title of the largest mall in the Philippines.[14]

The addition of the Mega Fashion Hall building added 125 new retail stores, 90% of which are global brands and 10% of which are local retailers.[15]

SM Supermalls president Steven Tan announced that SM Megamall would begin its redevelopment in 2024, ultimately yielding up to 20,000 sqm of new leasable space.[16]

Mega Tower

A 50-storey 249.7 m (819 ft) office tower,[17] named The Mega Tower, is built next to the Mega Fashion Hall formerly occupied by an open carpark. The S-shaped tower is directly connected to the Mega Fashion Hall and will feature three levels of basement parking and multilevel parking. It will have a leasable area of 124,200 m2 (1,337,000 sq ft).[18] Groundbreaking began in March 2016, while the tower's construction phase began six months later on the same year, in September 2016. The tower was topped off in March 2020, and was opened in 2021.[19][20]

Arquitectonica is the firm responsible for the architectural design,[21] while Aurecon serves as the tower's structural engineer consultant and New Golden City Builders serve as the general contractor for the project.[18]

  • View within EDSA (2014)
    View within EDSA (2014)
  • Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord
    Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord
  • IMAX Theatre
    IMAX Theatre
  • Mega Food Hall
    Mega Food Hall
  • SM Bowling Center
    SM Bowling Center
  • SM Skating Rink
    SM Skating Rink
  • Bicycle parking at Mega Fashion Hall
    Bicycle parking at Mega Fashion Hall

In the idol anime, titled Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, in its second season in Episode 13, the characters were seen in a giant LED screen in a mall which looked like SM Megamall's Fashion Hall, under the name "Largemall."

Incidents and accidents

2000 bombing

On May 21, 2000, a bomb exploded inside a restroom at Cinema 6 of the mall's movie theater located on the third floor. One person was killed and dozens were injured. Two of the victims sustained very serious injuries.[22] The bombing occurred four days after the Glorietta 2 bombing which wounded 13 people. Seven years later, the 2007 blast in Glorietta injured 129 people, while leaving 12 people dead.

2013 incidents
  • January 26, 2013: A holdup and shootout occurred when the Martilyo Gang, a local criminal group specializing in robbing stores by smashing and stealing valuables using hammers, robbed a jewelry store in the department store on the first floor.[23][24]
  • May 5, 2013: An explosion briefly caused panic at the foodcourt at Building A, with at least one reported hurt in a stampede before shoppers were able to calm down after learning the sounds were not gunshots. A siomai steamer was short-circuited and caused people to file out at around 7:25 PM [25]

Fire incidents
  • June 29, 2018: A fire hit the under-construction SM Mega Tower near SM Mega Fashion Hall at around 7:30 PM. It was declared "fire out" at around 6 hours later, at 1:30 AM on the next day. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) had announced in a tweet at 8:16 PM on Thursday that the blaze had already reached the third alarm. This meant that up to nine fire trucks should be deployed.[26]
  • May 16, 2021: A fire broke out in Building C of the mall at 3:36 AM. The fire was put out 19 minutes later.[27]
  • September 2, 2021: A fire hit the 27th floor of the under-construction SM Mega Tower around 10:26 AM, causing people in the building to be reportedly trapped.[28][29]

See also

References
  1. "15 Biggest Malls in the World". Insider Monkey. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  2. "Megamall". Malls. SM Prime Holdings, Inc. Archived from the original on January 21, 2007. Retrieved February 15, 2007.
  3. Tantuco, Vernise (November 27, 2015). "Touring the new SM Seaside City Cebu, PH 3rd biggest mall". Rappler. Archived from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved February 25, 2016. SM said that the largest mall is SM Megamall at 474,000 m2 (5,100,000 sq ft), followed by SM North EDSA at 470,000 square meters.
  4. "SM Prime expanding Megamall for P1.5b". Manila Standard Today. May 2, 2011. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
  5. Gallego, Art (April 26, 1989). "Henry Sy bags ₱1-B loan deal". Manila Standard. Kagitingan Publications, Inc. p. 19. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  6. "43 venues mobilized for Southeast Asian Games". The Philippine Star. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  7. "LOOK: 2019 SEA Games schedule, venues". Rappler. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  8. Charm, Neil. "Service robots coming soon to malls as SM ties up with Cal-Comp | BusinessWorld". www.bworldonline.com. Archived from the original on November 11, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  9. "SM Megamall brings nature indoor with new botanical garden". Orange Magazine. October 27, 2020.
  10. Reyes, Fat (September 2, 2012). "DFA opens new consular office at SM Megamall". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on March 24, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
  11. Magazine, Speed (May 28, 2021). "BTS pop-up store in Megamall to open doors starting May 29". Speed Magazine.
  12. Staff, ANCX. "The man behind this shiny new statue at SM Megamall is a great source of Filipino pride". ABS-CBN News.
  13. Jul 31, Mario Alvaro Limos. "A Gigantic Time Statue Was Just Unveiled in Front of Megamall". Esquiremag.ph.
  14. "SM Megamall now PH's largest mall". Inquirer Business. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  15. "SM Megamall is Once Again the Largest Mall in the Philippines". Pinoymalls. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
  16. "'Glad' tidings & 'Joyconomy' at SM 2023 Tenant-Partner Summit". The Philippine STAR. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  17. "Upcoming Skyscrapers in Southeast Asia". Southeast Asia Building: 53. May–June 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  18. "SM Prime Holdings appoints Aurecon as designer of SM Megamall Towers". The Edge Markets. Archived from the original on January 19, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
  19. "Projects | SM Megamall Tower, Manila, Philippines". Aurecon Group. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
  20. Manila Standard Lifestyle (April 14, 2021). "SM launches Mega Tower". Manila Standard. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
  21. "Architects of ideas". Pacific Rim Construction. August 29, 2017. Archived from the original on August 19, 2019. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  22. "Blast hits Megamall; 1 killed, 17 wounded". The Philippine Star. May 22, 2000. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  23. Tricia Aquino (January 26, 2013). "Netizens capture mayhem in Megamall". TV5. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
  24. "'Martilyo Gang' responsible for Megamall heist: police". ABS-CBN News.
  25. "Malfunctioning siomai steamer sends Megamall shoppers fleeing in panic, 1 hurt". GMA News Online.
  26. "Fire hits building under construction at SM Megamall". Rappler. Archived from the original on September 1, 2019. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  27. "Fire breaks out in part of Megamall". GMA News Online. May 16, 2021. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
  28. "People feared trapped as fire hits Mandaluyong building". GMA News. September 2, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  29. "People break glass windows during SM Mega Tower fire". ABS-CBN News.
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