CLARK FREEPORT – The SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPI) will infuse an initial P500 million in its expansion project at the SM City Clark here, primarily creating office spaces for business process outsourcing (BPO) firms.
SM Clark assistant mall manager Ana Datu announced that the expansion project at a five-hectare area will start this month “to serve the customers better and to be at par with the improvements” at the Clark Freeport pushed by the Clark Development Corp. (CDC).
Datu said the SMPI’s initial budget of half billion pesos will be for a four-storey building just beside the SM City Clark mall which opened in 2007. She added that the first and second floors will be for SM’s retail stores and the two other floors will be reserved for BPO offices.
“We will rent out the spaces for BPO as we do in SM City Pampanga,” said Datu, referring to the TeleTech Call Centre at the first mall of business tycoon Henry Sy in Pampanga.
Datu said they will also construct four more buildings in a 5.5 hectare area for their expansion “solely for BPO operations.” SM City Clark sits in a some 16-hectare area here.
A report to CDC President and CEO Felipe Antonio Remollo and CDC Assistant Vice President for investment Bernie Angeles showed the SMPI target date of the project’s completion is in 2013. The expansion project will employ 500 more workers at Clark where there are some 62,000 workers.
The SM City Clark and its leased retail stores employ at least 3,000 people, Datu said.
In the same report to the CDC, the SM City Clark expansion project will be a mixed use facility for offices, retail and commercial stores, entertainment and leisure outlets and hotel tourism related businesses.
For his part, Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said “this expansion of SM Clark in Angeles is an indication of a forthcoming surge of more investments in Clark and nearby areas.”
