IN LINE with its strategy to continuously expand despite the global financial crunch, mall developer and operator SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPH) announced the opening today of SM City Fairview Annex.

The company said the annex will add 28,600 square meters (sqm) of gross floor area (GFA) to the main mall, increasing SM Fairview’s total GFA to 182,783 sqm SM City Fairview is located within the Quirino Highway and Regalado Avenue area in Novaliches, Quezon City.

“With the expansion of both SM City Fairview and SM North EDSA, which also happens to be our very first mall, Quezon City remains to be one of SMPH’s most important local partners and continues to be a domain for further growth,” said its president Hans T. Sy.

The company, which belongs to the SM Group that is known to buck the crisis cycle, said the annex will provide employment of close to 1,500 people, including direct and indirect employees.

The annex has 19,100 sqm of gross leasable area and will have as its mall tenants Ace Hardware, Timezone, Grills, Chilly Willy’s, Sbarro, Breadtalk, Ford Motors, Center for Pop Music, All Flip Flops and People R People, among others.

SMPH launched last year SM City Marikina, SM Megamall Bridgeway, SM City Rosales in Pangasinan, The Annex at SM City North Edsa and SM City Baliwag in Bulacan.

The publicly listed company is spending around P10 billion as capital expenditure this year, the bulk of which will fund the building of malls both here and abroad.

It said it may tap borrowings to fund the expansion program.

“We are looking at various options but maybe more on debt because we are not leverage enough,” said executive vice president Jeffrey Lim in an earlier interview.

Around P7 billion is likely to be spent to build three new malls in Naga (Bicol), Pamplona (Las Piñas) and Rosario (Cavite) next year and expand SM Rosales (Pangasinan). By the end of 2009, SMPH will have a total of 36 malls under its portfolio with a total gross floor area of 4.5 million square meters.