Cebu City is the most significant metropolitan area in the Philippines after Metro Manila. It’s nicknamed the Queen City of the South because it’s highly urbanized and serves as the gateway to a lot of domestic destinations. The thriving city has plenty of landmarks, both historical and modern, and those are a reason why it gets a lot of tourist traffic.

A new landmark is set to attract more crowds in the near future. By 2013, construction of SM Seaside City Cebu at the South Road Properties will be completed and will serve as a center of shopping, entertainment and lifestyle. SM Supermalls is known to be an indicator of a locale’s economic potential. The bigger the SM is at your town or city, the more progressive it is perceived or actually is.

SM Seaside City Cebu is going to be huge—a clear testament of the country’s largest shopping center chain’s confidence in Cebu. The mixed-use site is 304,100 square meters while the mall will have a total lot area of 93,570 square meters (291,043 square meters gross floor area).

To celebrate the milestone and introduce the project, SM invited friends and tenants for the groundbreaking and launch. Members of the media, including this writer, flew to Cebu and stayed at the Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu to to witness this occasion on April 8. Guests were treated to the famous Cebu lechon, among other delicacies, at the cocktail event at the hotel’s ballroom.

“SM Prime Holdings, owner and developer of the SM Supermalls, will start a huge mixed-use 30-hectare development here in Cebu,” said SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy. The South Road Properties site will be developed to have hotels, residences and apartments, schools, a church and, according to Sy, “barring any obstacle, a hospital.”

Housing an SM Hypermarket, an SM Department Store, over 800 food and retail establishments, five SM Cinemas, an IMAX theater, a bowling center, an ice skating rink and a covered event area, the structure will boast a 23,442-square-meter roof garden, an elevated park with dining establishments amidst greens and water features. A 1,020-seat theater will also be constructed for theater events, concerts and artistic events

“The opportunity of being part of and shaping the Filipino lifestyle over the years has been an inspiration to our organization to be dynamic and innovative in offering exciting developments through which we make even more true that with SM, ‘we got it all for you’,” Sy added.

The mall and the surrounding seaside area, designed by Miami-based architecture and interior design firm Arquitectonica, is inspired by the nautilus, a shell structure. The building will have elements such as expanding concentric arcs, a modern facade in polished silver metal to reflect natural lighting on the sea and a circular building with a multipurpose central courtyard.

At the center of it all will be the Iconic Viewing Tower, a 100-meter tall tower that will provide a majestic 360-degree view of the entire landscape. Inspired by The Globe at SM Mall of Asia, SM Seaside City will have The Cube to welcome customers, a permanent installation that will be lit up with LED lights and touted to be the mall’s icon.