SY-LED SM Prime Holdings, Inc. has continued to ramp up expansions beyond Metro Manila via a P1.4-billion upgrade for its Bacolod mall and a sales push to bring in merchants into a new Davao City development.

The company will then undertake a two-phase construction of a new annex building for SM City Bacolod, which will add 171,380 square meters (sq. m.) to the mall’s gross floor area (GFA) from a present GFA of 71,759 sq. m. a disclosure to the local bourse showed.

SM City Bacolod, which opened in 2007 at an estimated investment cost of P1.6 billion, is the company’s third mall in Visayas after SM City Cebu and SM City Iloilo, SM Prime said.

Upon completion in 2014, SM City Bacolod Annex will feature 81,204 sq. m. of gross leasable area and is expected to provide employment for an estimated 2,000 people.

This move comes as SM Prime seeks to strengthen its presence in the city after losing out last year to rival developer Ayala Land, Inc. over the rights to develop certain prime lands offered by the Negros Occidental government for sale and lease.

SM Prime has appealed the decision, earlier reports showed.

For this year, SM Prime is set to open SM City Lanang in Davao City, SM City General Santos in South Cotabato, SM City Consolacion in Cebu, SM City San Fernando in Pampanga, and SM Chongqing in China, bringing its mall portfolio to 46 Philippine malls and five China malls, with an estimated combined GFA of 6.3 million sq. m.

These launches are expected to be funded by a P21-billion capital budget for 2012, which will be sourced from a mix of debt and internally generated funds, earlier reports showed.

In a related development, an official of Shopping Center Management Corp., which operates under SM Prime Holdings, said it was bring to Davao City representatives of merchants that are being lured to locating in the firm’s second mall in the area.

The development, located at Lanang district about six kilometers north of downtown Davao, is expected to open in August, in time for the annual Kadayawan Festival.

Anna Maria S. Garcia, president of the company, said the new shopping complex is an indication of Davao’s pivotal role in SM Supermall’s expansion in Mindanao.” Zuleika T. Lopez, acting city administrator, welcomed the new mall noting would boost the city’s economy. — Franz Jonathan G. de la Fuente with Carmelito Q. Francisco