Ayala Center Cebu

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.

Ayala Center Cebu
LocationCebu City
Coordinates10°19′4″N 123°54′18″E
AddressCebu Business Park, Archbishop Reyes Avenue, Cebu City
Opening dateNovember 1994 (1994-11)
DeveloperAyala Corporation
ManagementAyala Corporation
OwnerAyala Corporation
No. of stores and services680
Total retail floor area240,688 square metres (2,590,740 sq ft)
No. of floors5
Websitewww.ayalamalls.com.ph/malls-philippines/ayala-center-cebu

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 plus a condominium called the 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, with an additional 36,500 square meters of gross leasable area.

In 2015, a new corporate center called The Ayala Center Cebu Tower was Built. It currently accommodates BPO offices and the fashion store H&M.

In 2016, another condominium in the complex, named The Alcoves, will be built at the original main entrance of the mall. A three-level expansion of the South entrance serves as the podium of the building.

Awards
  • Finalist, Best Shopping Center of the Year (Philippine Retailer's Association and Department of Trade and Industry, 2002)

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.[2] Nine people were reported wounded.[3]

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.[4][5] 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 large damages and the fire rendered the whole Metro Ayala building unsuitable for continued use. Soon, the 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 ground floor of the main mall.[4] In October 2019, the department store also reopened on a temporary location inside the main mall.[6] Plans are underway to rebuild the Metro Department Store building, with the whole structure expected to be complete by the 1st quarter of 2021.

Sales clerk incident

On December 7, 2019, a video was posted on Facebook, of a Filipina who shouted at a sales clerk of a humidifier kiosk on the ground floor and threw a humidifier at the clerk's face. The suspect was holding her baby when the incident happened. The police could not determine what the argument was about, but the suspect was shouting, "Don't touch my baby!" before the incident happened. The sales clerk's eye started to bleed before the mall security interceded to stop the argument. The suspect was arrested.[7]

See also

References
  1. Philippine Daily Inquirer - Cebuanos develop shopping, leisure habits Archived February 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Loose piping caused ceiling to collapse in Ayala cinema". Sun.Star. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  3. "Wounded in Cebu cinema incident rises to 9". SunStar. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  4. Sino Cruz, Irene R. (January 4, 2019). "Metro Ayala Cebu supermarket reopens, ground floor rebuilding done by 1Q 2019". Cebu Daily News. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  5. "Fire hits Metro Gaisano Ayala Cebu". Sun.Star. January 5, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  6. "Metro Department Store reopens". Sun.Star. November 8, 2019. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  7. "Woman charged for assaulting Cebu mall sales clerk". Rappler.
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