OLONGAPO CITY—The SM Supermalls chain recently opened its sixth mall in Central Luzon and is set to open another one by May this year, illustrating the owners’ confidence in the area’s market.

Interviewed at the opening of the SM City Olongapo on Saturday, SM Supermalls President Annie Garcia said the market for malls remains “robust,” particularly in Central Luzon where the improvements in infrastructure have made the area more accessible.

Garcia said, “Central Luzon is strong as well” when asked by the BusinessMirror about how confident they are in investing at Region 3.

She announced that SM City San Fernando will open on May 18, bringing to three their malls in Pampanga and a total of seven in the region by mid-2012.  

Garcia said the “accessibility” of the areas at Central Luzon with the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway “is an advantage.”  

“There are also big improvements in infrastructure in the past three years,” she said. 

“With these, everything seems accessible [in Central Luzon]. What used to take two hours of travel has been reduced to 30 or 45 minutes,” she added. 

The other malls of the SM Prime Holdings Inc. in Central Luzon are in Marilao and Baliwag in Bulacan and Tarlac City in Tarlac.

Garcia said “we are always looking for opportunities” when asked if SM Prime will invest in other Central Luzon provinces, including Bataan, Aurora and Nueva Ecija.

“Our aim is to serve more people,” she added.

SM City Olongapo is SM Prime’s  42nd mall in the country.

SM Prime President Hans Sy and Garcia led the blessing and inauguration of the SM City Olongapo located on Magsaysay Drive  and Gordon Avenue.

In 2012 SM Prime is scheduled to open SM City Lanang in Davao City, SM City General Santos in Southern Mindanao, SM City Consolacion in Cebu and SM Chongqing in China.

By the end of this year, SMPI will have 46 malls in the Philippines and five in China with an estimated combined gross floor area of 6.3 million square meters.