Who remembers Harrison Plaza during its glory days?
It may not look like it now, but Harrison Plaza, located beside the Manila Zoo and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, was once hailed as one of the country’s first modern shopping centers. It was inaugurated in 1976. The place definitely needs a makeover these days.
In a chance interview with Doris Dumlao-Abadilla of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, SM Prime Holdings Inc chief finance officer Jeffrey Lim disclosed that they were “in talks with the city government to redevelop the 40-year-old SM Harrison Plaza complex — which stands on a strategic seven-hectare property owned by the city government — into a mixed-use development.”
Read: 10 things to do in Harrison Plaza
Lim stated, “We will develop the shopping center and put up BPO (business process outsourcing) offices.” He added that there would also be residential towers in the complex and that the estimated capital outlay for the project was PHP39.44 billion, as “more towers for the office and residential components would be built aside from the redevelopment of the shopping center.”
The report noted: “Industry sources, however, said the lease contract with the city government of the long-time concessionaire of the property, the Martel family, had yet to expire.
“The Martel family was paying less than PHP20 million in annual rental to the Manila City government, which was deemed too low by the local leadership given how the property sector had boomed over the years.”
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