A SHOPPING MALL and commercial complex, the first of its kind in Aurora, was inaugurated Saturday, with its owner, Leticia Uy, president of the NE Group of Companies based in Cabanatuan City, leading the inauguration rites.
She was accompanied by the officers and members of Soroptomist International-Metro Cabanatuan of which she is a leading figure. Called the NE Mall and Supermarket, the complex is located in Baler near the provincial Capitol.
Architect Ronaldo Rosetes, company architect who was tapped to design the shopping mall project, said the commercial complex, located at a sprawling one-hectare site in Purok 7, Barangay Suklayin, houses a supermarket on the ground fl oor and a restaurant on the second floor.
Rosetes said the complex has 4,000 square meters of available parking space that can accommodate up to 200 cars. He said the complex is similar to the NE Crossing at Sangitan St. in Cabanatuan City which is patronized as a commercial and a restaurant complex.
The commercial complex, which construction started last September 1, was supposed to be inaugurated last December but construction slowed down due to typhoons Labuyo and Santi. During the construction phase, 40 skilled workers were hired from Baler while between 70 to 80 came from Nueva Ecija.
Uy started as a broiled corn vendor in downtown Cabanatuan as a young girl, then put up a bakeshop that made her earn the title “pilipit queen,” and rose to become to a homegrown mall owner.
She put up in 1983 the fi rst mall in Cabanatuan that housed a supermarket, cinemas, a fast food center, a recreation center with computerized bowling alleys, boutiques, drugstores and other shops put up by tenants.
This mall featured the use of the first escalator in Nueva Ecija. In 1996, she opened the two-story NE-Pacific
Mall, which has more than 300 shops and restaurants, a supermarket, a hardware store, theaters and a cluster of stores selling various items. It was put up with the help of Landco Pacifi c Development Corp.(Landco).
In 2008, through a special arrangement, a branch of Robinsons shopping mall was set up beside it. The two malls side by side covered six hectares.
Uy’s group of companies later put up a chain of malls, super bodegas and restaurants in Gapan City, San Jose City, Baliwag and Sta. Maria, both in Bulacan; Santiago City and Cauayan City in Isabela; North Edsa and a catering service in San Juan, Metro Manila and at Carson St., Torrance, California.
