Ayala’s 1st shopping mall in Ortigas area opens

“Our competitive advantage is really our accessibility and convenience to community that we are serving,” Aurora C. Legarda, senior division manager and area head of Ayala Malls Group, said in a media briefing on Thursday.

“We are actually in the middle of all the residential gated subdivisions, residential condominiums even the multinational offices,” Ms. Legarda added.

Ayala Malls’ The 30th which sits on a two-hectare property, features four cinemas, a supermarket under the Rustan’s brand, an outdoor space and 183 merchants spread across four floors.

“We have only a few available space left. We’re pretty much fully leased out,” Mariana Zobel de Ayala, general manager of Ayala Malls’ The 30th said during the briefing.

The shopping mall merges with a 20-story office building that will mostly cater to business process outsourcing (BPO) companies and other local operations once completed.

“Since it’s surrounded by all the families in the area and, of course, the cosmopolitan office workers and the students, we picture that all of the markets will be served here,” Ms. Legarda said, with the mall next to the Renaissance Towers, The Alexandra and St. Paul College Pasig, among others.

Ayala Land is expanding its recurring income base, with the view of balancing its development and leasing portfolios.

In the first nine months of 2016, commercial leasing business of Ayala Land grew 12% to P19.17 billion from P17.18 billion amid the expansion of the malls, offices and hotels and resorts portfolios.

To date, the company has 1.57 million sq.m. of gross leasable area in its shopping mall portfolio, 753,000 sq.m. in the office segment and 1,991 rooms in the hotel and resort folder.

Shares in Ayala Land closed 20 centavos or 0.58% lower at P34 apiece on the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, tracking a downtrend caused by the continued profit-taking activity of investors.