As a Fairview resident, I have always been frustrated that we seem to have been ignored by upscale stores and restaurants. What we usually get are “budget” retail outlets and restaurants, something that’s surprising because the Commonwealth Avenue area is home to many upper middle class and middle class villages. There is even a “Beverly Hills” area of sorts, where popular stars like Angel Locsin, Gerald Anderson, Cesar Montano and Jennylyn Mercado live.

With the SM City Fairview Annex, we now have a bigger mall nearby that’s also filled with upmarket stores and specialty restaurants.

The annex gives the mall another 33,000 square meters of house housing nearly 100 tenants, including the 6,000 sq m Teleperformance call center which houses 1,200 seats.

The mall expansion is centered around the semi-circular Great Court, which forms a terminus of one end of the mall anchored by an ACE Builders Center. The ground level is a venue for many activities from musical performances and fashion shows to people watching and of course, shopping.

A double height curtain wall opens onto the front of the mall, providing ample light and views out of and into the Great Court. This is balanced by a continuous clerestory bringing additional daylight.

The exterior takes on the colors of the original mall with vibrant blue signage towers and a new updated logo identifying all entrances. The primary mall is white and stainless steel overhangs shelter the curtain walls, clerestories and entrances, reducing glare and providing shelter from the elements. Exterior landscaping is also extensive and well integrated with the expansion’s architecture.

SM City Fairview first opened on October 25, 1997 on the 20-hectare site in the intersection of Quirino and Regalado Avenue, Novaliches in Quezon City. It was the seventh SM Prime Holdings Mall to open. The main mall features retail anchors like SM Department Store, SM Supermarket and SM Appliance Center as well as 12 SM Cinemas, SM Food Court, SM Bowling Center and SM Storyland.

The response among residents of the nearly 255 villages surrounding SM Fairview was overwhelming with about 130,000 shoppers on a daily basis. The mall opened its first annex on May 14, 2004. The annex houses SM Hypermarket, restaurants and Palm Drive, which features al fresco dining.

The new annex, which opened last year, was designed by Dsign Associates. It brings SM Fairview’s total floor area to 220,000 square meters, making it the sixth largest SM Supermall in the Philippines after SM City North Edsa, SM Mall of Asia, SM Megamall, SM City Cebu and SM Southmall in Las Pinas. It serves customers in Fairview, Greater Lagro, North Caloocan, Novaliches and Bulacan.

Finally, we have shops like Sanuk, which sells footwear, and The Travel Club, which offers premium luggage, bags and accessories from brands like Delsey, Hedgren, Eagle Creek, Eastpak, Jansport and The North Face.

There is also a Posh Nails, one of the country’s leading salons that specialize in pampering packages for hands and feet. It is the first to offer themed manicures and pedicures such as Green Tea, Coffee, Chocolate Lovers, Margarita, Creme Brulee and Citrus.

There is now a wide array of food shops including Panciteria Lido, Army Navy, Big Better Burgers, Krispy Kreme and grilled servings from Taipan Grill. For Thai home cooking, we can go to My Thai at the ground floor of the new annex. Pancake House has reopened an outlet at the new annex while pasta and pizza lovers don’t have to go all the way to SM Megamall to enjoy their favorites as Sbarro is now in SM Fairview.

The new annex has truly redefined the SM shopping and dining experience for residents of nearby areas and the best part is that we now have a “neighborhood” mall that’s got it all.