Manila, Philippines – SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SM Prime), the country’s top mall developer and operator, is set to open in SM City San Pablo today, its 38th shopping mall in the Philippines.

“We warmly welcome all our valued customers to SM Prime’s newest mall, SM City San Pablo. This is the second SM mall in Laguna, with another one coming up later this year in Calamba,” said SM Prime president Hans T. Sy said.

He said, “Laguna is a key area for our mall expansion, with its bustling cities, relative proximity to Metro Manila, and a thriving tourism industry.”

The new mall, with a gross floor area (GFA) of 56,086 square meters (sqm), is located along the Maharlika Highway in Barangay San Rafael, San Pablo City in the province of Laguna. It is also SM Prime’s second mall in the province, after SM City Sta. Rosa, which opened in February 2006.

SM City San Pablo has a leasable area of 34,169 sqm, 99 percent of which has already been awarded to various tenants. The mall’s anchor tenants are SM Supermarket and SM Department Store.

It also offers a business center and a food court that comfortably seats up to 456 diners. The mall has four cinemas with a combined seating capacity of about 1,400. SM City San Pablo also provides parking slots for over 600 vehicles and a terminal for public utility vehicles.

SM City San Pablo brings to 38 the total number of SM Prime malls all over the country, with a combined gross floor area of 4.7 million sqm. It is the second SM mall to be opened this year, after SM City Tarlac in Tarlac Province, which was inaugurated last April.

For the rest of 2010, SM Prime is scheduled to open SM City Calamba, also in the province of Laguna, and SM City Novaliches in Quezon City.

The company is also set to open its fourth SM mall in mainland China, which will be located in the city of Suzhou.