MANILA, Philippines – Japan’s rising influence in Philippine retail and lifestyle will be on the spotlight in Mandaue City in central Philippines on Friday, October 25, as the Sy family formally opens its 5th mall in the Central Visayas province of Cebu: the SM City J Mall.
SM has highlighted touches of Japan in its marketing of its fourth mall in Metro Cebu, such as the gold-themed promotional video materials that end with what sounds like the Japanese musical instrument, koto.
One of its main attractions is its Izakaya Terrace, described by mall chain SM Supermalls as “a row of casual dining options with al fresco options that offer a mix of traditional and modern Japanese cuisine and cocktails.”
The word Izakaya means a type of Japanese bar that offers “small, typically inexpensive dishes,” according to the Oxford dictionary.
The Izakaya Terrace is distinct from the mall’s “nest-inspired” Food Hall, which will showcase both Cebuano and international cuisine.
The four-level SM City J Mall is also located right next to a Japanse hotel chain, Toyoko Inn Cebu, which is all but happy to have a major retail outlet opening right next to it at the “bustling” A.S. Fortuna Street in Barangay Bakilid, Mandaue City.
Over the past decade, Japanese culture, particularly in food and fashion, has spread its influence in its former colony with the mushrooming of all kinds of Japanese food outlets, as well as the rise of Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo, Japanese anime, J-pop, and Japanese computer games. Similarly, the Ty family launched in November 2022 the Japan-inspired Mitsukoshi Mall in BGC, Taguig City in the nation’s capital region.
The SM group took over Cebuano businessman Justin Uy’s then-12-year-old J Center Mall over a year ago after the mall closed in January 2023. SM undertook a major redevelopment of the mall into an upscale retail destination. It dropped the word “center” from its original name but retained the letter J.
Uy is founder of the country’s leading dried mango and dried fruits producer, Profood International Corporation. His family also owns the condominium J Tower beside SM City J Mall, as well as JPark Island Resort Waterpark in Mactan.
Among the tenants in SM City J Mall are upscale brands Starbucks, Uniqlo, Power Mac Center, and Levis.
It also has the usual anchor tenants of the SM group — SM Store, SM Hypermarket, SM Appliance Center, Watsons, Pet Express, Ace Hardware, BDOand Chinabank.
SM City J Mall also has two Director’s Club cinemas, the more expensive theater brand of SM.
“We wanted to offer something unique, more experiential here in J Mall because the size isn’t as big as SM Seaside or SM Cebu kaya medyo mapili kami sa (so we’re more choosy with the) tenants,” SM Supermalls President Steven Tan said early this month.
SM J Mall has a gross floor area (GFA) of 100,00 square meters, while SM Seaside City, which opened 9 years ago, has 430,000 GFA or over four times more.
The Sy family’s SM Prime Holdings Incorporated, the Philippines’ largest mall operator and developer, said on Wednesday October 23, that it has pre-leased around 80% of SM City J Mall’s gross leasable area.
Regional growth
SM Prime President Jeffrey Lim said SM City J Mall, its 87th mall in the Philippines “is designed to cater to the increasing demand for premium commercial and lifestyle experiences in Mandaue City.”
SM Prime’s mall development is now focused on the country’s provinces rather than the capital, as the regions post higher growth rates.
“The opening of SM City J Mall reflects our confidence in the robust economic growth of Central Visayas,” Lim said. “Our expansion into thriving regional hubs like Mandaue City is integral to our strategy of driving economic progress across the Philippines and delivering sustainable value to our stakeholders.”
Citing Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data, SM Prime said Central Visayas posted the highest growth rate among the country’s 17 regions at 7.3%.
“The City of Mandaue is a first-class highly urbanized city located in the central-eastern coastal region of the island province of Cebu. It is the industrial hub in the Central Visayas region and hosts around 10,000 industrial and commercial locators,” SM Prime said in a press statement.
SM Prime has seven other malls in the Visayas region.
SM City J Mall is the second SM mall that opens this year. It opened SM Caloocan last May. It is set to open the third and last for the year — SM Laoag — in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s home province of Ilocos Norte before the end of the year.
Almost a year ago, SM Prime opened what a city mayor described as a “Singapore-style mall” in Sto. Tomas, Batangas.
SM Prime’s malls business contributed 58% of the property developer’s revenues of P64.7 billion in the first half of 2024, a 9% growth from the the P59 billion in the same period in 2023. – Rappler.com