SM Prime Holdings, Inc. will open its 31st mall in the country on Friday, September 5, 2008 in Marikina City.

The firm said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) yesterday that SM City Marikina, which is along Marcos Highway, occupies 60,000 square meters (sqm) of land and has a gross floor area (GFA) of 122,000 sqm.

Total leasable area is 58,000 sqm with the SM department store and supermarket occupying 18,500 sqm and 10,000 sqm, respectively. Its main anchor tenants are SM Department Store and an SM Supermarket.

SM Prime President Hans Sy said: ‘We are celebrating the special kinship between SM and Marikina, the country’s shoe capital, with the opening of one of our most beautifully designed malls.

‘I am sure many of our original shoe suppliers will be nostalgic as soon as the doors of SM City Marikina open for business. It is a very fitting event as this year, SM also celebrates its 50th founding anniversary. We cordially invite everyone to visit SM City Marikina and celebrate this kinship with us,’ he said.

As in all SM malls, SM City Marikina will offer a complete line of stores, and services for shopping, dining, entertainment, spa, health, and wellness.

Among the facilities included are a 1,000-sqm food court, eight cinemas with a combined seating capacity of 3,348, and basement parking for over 1,100 vehicles.

It also features a 2,600-sqm Cyberzone, where the latest in information technology products and services will be available.

Marikina is a key city for SM as its shoemakers became vital partners of SM during its growth years in the sixties as a shoe store in Carriedo, Manila. ‘Marikina was supplying 70 percent of the shoes we were selling at Shoemart. I would like to think that being one of its biggest buyers of shoes, we contributed to the growth of Marikina,’ said SM founder Henry Sy, Sr.

The mall, which sits on Marikina’s riverbank, was designed by EDGE Interior Design Pty. Ltd., a foreign design consultant based in Australia.

‘We continue to improve on the look of our malls to make them not just aesthetically appealing, but more importantly, environmentally friendly,’ said Sy.

SM City Marikina is the first mall to be opened by SM Prime this year. In 2007, the company opened three malls, which were located in Bacolod, Taytay, and Muntinlupa. SM Prime also acquired three existing SM malls in China, namely SM Xiamen, SM Jinjiang, and SM City Chengdu. For the fourth quarter of 2008, SM Prime is scheduled to open SM Rosales in Pangasinan, SM Baliuag in Bulacan and launch its expansion of SM Megamall and SM Fairview.