SM plan to construct convention center, inn in Cebu

THE SM Investment Corp. (SMIC) will open its second convention center in Cebu, which is projected to be completed within two years.

“The design development (of the convention center) will take six months while construction for the building will be (take) 18 months,” said Merril Yu, senior vice president of the SMIC Hotel Investment Group.

SMIC plans to build a three-story convention center that will have a total space of 8,000 square meters. It will rise next to the SM hotel and the SM City Cebu mall at the North Reclamation Area, Cebu City.

“It will be a smaller version of the convention center found at the SM Mall of Asia Complex” Yu said.

The convention center is also designed to complete the “one-stop experience” that SMIC is trying to achieve by putting it in the same block as the mall and the hotel.

Yu, however, did not disclose how much SMIC will invest in the project.

The convention center will have 4,000 square meters of exhibit space and 3,500 square meters for other functions.

Marissa Fernan, vice president for SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPHI), said it is still unclear if the exhibit areas found inside
the SM Cebu mall will have to be taken out.

“But we have a million of uses for that space,” she said in a news conference yesterday.

Yu said that since the design details of the convention center are not yet finalized SMIC cannot give more information.

However, he said the design of the convention center will “compliment” the existing facilities within the 18-hectare SM Cebu property at the North Reclamation Area.

“Everything is meant to blend in together,” he said.

Fernan, on the other hand, said once the hotel and convention center are operational, SM Cebu might be renamed as a “complex” to refer to it as an all-in-one destination. (DME)

Tuesday, September 09, 2008, sunstarnews