AN URBAN LEISURE OASIS
by Lim Lay Ying
Property Times, New Straits Times
11th September 2004

With equal parts enthusiasm and apprehension, the retail real estate world has viewed a number of distinct experiments in leisure and entertainment development over the last few years.

This new form of development – unanchored retail projects animated with a mix of entertainment venues and icon restaurants – has been accompanied by promises of revitalized urban centres and new regional centrepoints for communities and regions.

It has attracted attention from food/restaurant franchises, entertainment companies, developers of traditional malls, and entrepreneurs. Today, it is taking Asia by storm and recent urban leisure developments are being designed to fill a perceived gap in the marketplace.

One such project is located in the middle of Makati City, the Philippines’ premier financial and commercial district, within the 91-acre Ayala Centre which is a large-scale commercial/retail complex. Named Greenbelt 3, it is the first open-air urban retail/entertainment centre in Philippines.

Positioning for maximum appeal

Ayala Land, the Philippines’ largest developer of retail, office, and residential properties, has been building the Ayala Centre since 1963. Of the entire 91 acres, 84 acres have so far been developed into a one-stop super-regional centre referred to as Glorietta.

Greenbelt 3 sits on the remaining seven-acre parcel at the southeast corner of Ayala Centre. With a gross floor area of 300,000 square feet, the four-level retail space was designed to front a park and at the same time, connected to the rest of Ayala Centre by elevated covered skywalks (skywalks from part of Makati City’s network of extensive elevated pedestrian thorough fares).

Sprawling over a combined area of 6.5 acres, the park is forested with over 600 acacia, palm, and banyan trees, which are interspersed around water features and a sculpture garden. The park virtually “weaves” into the terraced building through meandering open air plazas, courtyards, and pathways that provide outdoor seating for restaurants and cafes.

The project’s north end is anchored by a six-storey museum of Filipino culture, surrounded by “quiet” uses like a chapel, bookstores, and galleries. From its north end, the tenants gravitate towards being more animated, progressing from more home- and fashion-oriented stores and terrace restaurants to a lively zone of music and video stores, cinemas, and nightclubs. Ayala Land’s leasing and design teams worked together to define and attract a diverse tenant mix following an intensive market research exercise amongst target visitors and shoppers.

One-of-a-kind destination

Owing to the prevailing weak economic conditions then, the company focused on the area’s top local retailers and restaurateurs rather than on international brands, and encouraged these tenants to create something special for the project. Taking the cue from the research findings, which revealed Filipinos’ innate cultural fondness for dining and socializing, the basis was formed to create a one-of-a-kind destination – which in the words of Ayala Land’s president, Francisco H. Licuanan III, is “exceptional even by world standards”.

Ayala Centre Greenbelt 3 which opened 100 per cent preleased in December 2002, has continued to experience overwhelming support from the community, visitors, and tenants. It accounted for a fifteen per cent increase in pedestrian traffic throughout the Ayala Centre complex, which averaged at a total of 75,000 visitors a day for Greenbelt 3 alone.

In the Makati City submarket, Ayala Centre’s share of the upper-income market has increased by three percentage points since Greenbelt 3’s opening. Greenbelt 3 has been extraordinarily successful despite being introduced during a severe recession and politically troubled economic situation, and has even demonstrated the positive impact it has on the value of the surrounding retail district.

The project represents a visionary step toward a new kind of urban leisure development, and provides a new model for retail/entertainment development in Asia – one with an intimate sense of place that responds both to the local Filipinos’ culture and lifestyle, and to the demands of international retail and entertainment standards.