Shopping mall in Cebu City, Philippines
Ayala Center Cebu is a large shopping mall owned by Ayala Malls at the Cebu Business Park in Cebu City, Philippines. It is the first Ayala mall located outside of Metro Manila. It opened in November 1994, one year after their rival mall, SM City Cebu opened. For more than 20 years, it was the only Ayala Mall to bear the word Ayala in its name until Ayala Malls Serin opened in March 2015.
On an average day, more than 85,000 people visit Ayala Center Cebu, with the figure increasing to 135,000 on weekends.[1] It is the centerpiece of the Cebu Business Park Complex.
Development
On October 30, 2008, Ayala Center Cebu opened "The Terraces", a ₱600-million project which converted the mall's lagoon area into a food, restaurant and beverage mall extension.
The mall also added over 200 stores in its four-level retail expansion and a condominium called Park Point Residences. Forty of the 200 outlets opened on December 11, 2013, during the unveiling of the expansion. The ₱2.9 billion expansion completes the retail master plan of Ayala Center Cebu, with an additional 36,500 m2 (393,000 sq ft) of gross leasable area.
In 2015, a new office building, called Ayala Center Cebu Tower, was opened on top of the west entrance of the mall. It accommodates business process outsourcing (BPO) offices, and its podium is andchored by a three-level store of fashion retailer, H&M.
In 2016, another condominium in the complex, named The Alcoves, was launched. It was built at the original main entrance of the mall. A three-level expansion of the south entrance serves as the podium of the building which is anchored by Japanese fashion retailer, Uniqlo. The retail area of The Alcoves was completed in April 2021.
Future redevelopment
Ayala Center Cebu will undergo a major re-development in the first quarter of 2024, set to be completed in 2026. Part of the three-year re-development project is to renovate the mall's interior, enhance the mall’s common areas, parks and garden, elevate entertainment and dining facilities, strengthen merchant mix with flagship stores, more first-in-Cebu and exclusive concept stores.[2]
Incidents
Cinema 5 ceiling collapse
On June 15, 2015, the ceiling at the mall's Cinema 5 collapsed at around 8:50 pm, during a launching event of a BPO company. A piping problem in the cinema's sprinkler system had caused the collapse. It is also believed that an earthquake that struck the area last March had caused the piping problem.[3] Nine people were reported wounded.[4]
Metro Department Store fire
On January 5, 2018, a fire broke out at the Metro Ayala Department Store building. The fire reportedly started at the mall's toy stockroom, located at the third floor of the Metro Ayala building.[5][6] It took two days to completely extinguish the fire. Despite the damages, no injuries were reported, as the fire started outside of the business hours. The building suffered major damages and the fire rendered the whole Metro Ayala building unsuitable for continued use. Soon, the demolition and reconstruction of a new Metro Department Store was commenced 6 months later.
In December 2018, the supermarket opened on its original location, on a 900 m2 (9,700 sq ft) area, on the first level of the main mall.[5] In October 2019, the department store also reopened on a temporary location inside the main mall.[7] The permanent building was completed in late 2020, and had its grand reopening on January 31, 2021.
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