Sy-led mall developer and operator SM Prime Holdings Inc. is set to build new shopping malls in Cebu City’s reclaimed South Road Properties (SRP) and in the industrial city of Tianjin in China.

SM Prime president Hans Sy said a bigger and bolder SM Prime is ready to take on the vast opportunities that will come from a robust and still growing Asian economy.

“Examples of this new momentum we are experiencing are the projects we are undertaking in Cebu City and in Tianjin, China,” he said.

In Cebu, SM Prime is set to build the city’s biggest mall at the aforementioned SRP worth P4.5 billion with a gross floor area (GFA) of 241,600 square meters, which will be the fourth biggest among the company’s Philippine malls, next to its SM City North Edsa, the Mall of Asia, and SM City Megamall.

The Cebu SRP shopping mall will be a four-level complex and will feature a five-theater Cineplex, an IMAX theater, an 18-lane bowling center, an ice skating, and a roof garden, among others. It is part of the 30-hectare mixed-use development project of SM Prime in Cebu called SM Seaside City.

Meanwhile in China, SM Prime is building in the industrial city of Tianjin its biggest mall to date with a GFA 530,000-sqm. SM Tianjin, which is only about 30 minutes by high-speed train and roughly one and a half hours by car from Beijing, will open in 2013.

SM Tianjin will showcase the latest and the best in mall design and build quality. The mall will feature three oval-shaped arch buildings, and its overall shape will look like a blossoming flower. It will be a grand showcase of how SM Prime has transformed into a first rate mall owner and developer not just in the Philippines but also in select cities of China.