P250-M Galleon Museum at MOA

From just a shopping mall, SM Group is now transforming its retail business into a much larger lifestyle development with more offerings, including its first-ever museum to be built in collaboration with one of the world’s richest men, Carlos Slim.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, real estate giant SM Prime Holdings, Inc. is hopeful it could finally open its P250-million Galleon Museum within the Mall of Asia (MOA) complex in Pasay in the second half of this year.

It was in July last year when SM Prime began the development of the museum.

In a recent interview, SM Prime President Hans Sy said the museum will be called “Acapulco Manila Galleon Trade Museum,” which will trace 450 years of history between Mexico and Philippines.

“We will try to revive the whole history of the galleon trade. We’re still in the final stage to come up with the replica of the first galleon ever built in the Philippines. You will be surprised,” Sy said

“I’m targeting to open the museum in the second half of 2016 but there’s still a lot of work. What we’re trying to do is really to make mall into a lifestyle. This is good opportunity to make part of mall development. The business is evolving,” he added.

Last year, Sy went to Mexico to meet with Slim for the development of the museum.

Considered as the “Warren Buffett of Mexico,” Slim was hailed as the richest person in the world from 2010 to 2013.

“We will put up the building in the MOA complex and then Carlos will bring some of the artifacts [he will donate to the museum],” SM Prime executive vice president Jeffrey Lim said in an earlier interview.

The Galleon Museum will have a size of 2,000 square meters and will be located beside the IMAX Theater of SM MOA.

Part of the Ayala Group, Ayala Museum has also been one of the offerings of Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) within its retail complex in Makati. ALI is one of the major competitors of the SM Prime in terms of shopping malls.