BACOLOD CITY — About 140,000 square meters of new retail space is expected to be available in this city in the next three years, according to global real property services firm, Colliers International Philippines.
As of April 16, Colliers reported that Bacolod’s retail stock reached almost 318,000 square meters by the end of 2017.
By 2020, Colliers projected the city’s retail space to reach by as much as 462,000 square meters, higher by 43 percent than the 2017 stock.
In Negros Occidental, SM City Bacolod’s north and south wings have a combined 107,000 square meters of leasable space, which accounts for more than 30 percent of the retail space here.
Colliers said the remaining 65 percent are accounted for smaller district and neighborhood malls owned and operated by local developers.
This year, Ayala Land Inc. is scheduled to complete a 70,000-square meter mall within its Capitol Central township across the Provincial Capitol in this city.
Megaworld Corp.’s Northill Town Center, a horizontal retail development with a central plaza that will host many amenities, is tentatively set to open next year.
Meanwhile, retail vacancy slightly increased from 1.7 percent in the second quarter of 2017 to 2.3 percent by the end of last year.
Colliers said this can be attributed to the recently-opened neighborhood malls’ difficulty in filling vacant space.
“We expect Bacolod City’s vacancy rate to hover between 1.5 percent and 3 percent this year as we see additional take up from foreign retailers planning to occupy space in SM City Bacolod and improved absorption in recently opened nearby malls,” the report said.
Still, vacancy should rise to between 4 percent and 6 percent per year from 2019 to 2020 with additional space in major townships by Ayala Land and Megaworld. (Erwin Nicavera/PNA)
