Ayala Land Inc. is renovating four of its commercial developments — Glorietta and Greenbelt malls in Makati, Trinoma in Quezon City and Ayala Center Cebu — while looking to increase hotel rooms for the medium term.
Mariana Beatriz Zobel de Ayala, Ayala Land director and senior vice president for leasing, said the company is doubling its hotel room count to about 8,000 in five years, from the current 4,000 room keys.
“We’re really proud of our homegrown brands so we have 12 locations today. We see a lot of opportunity for the SEDA. It has done really well with consumers really take to the ground. So we’re looking at expanding… Adding more hotels in tourist dense locations as well as our results,” she said.
Zobel said the renovation of the four commercial properties, set for a two-year timetable, will make these more pedestrian friendly while improving the ambiance for visitors. It will also increase the leasable space in the four properties.
Zobel said the renovation is a result of the company’s research into what typical Ayala Malls visitors are looking for.
“In all of those projects, we’ve taken a step back to really understand our target market, what their needs are, what they’re looking for, how we might be able to excite and surprise them in a different way,” she said.
“It also resulted in what I think is more dynamic use of our open and common spaces. So in the case of Glorietta, for example, we have several parks, we’ve worked with global planners to help us rethink how to integrate those parts, parks better within the mall experience. Right now, they sit a little bit separate,” Zobel added.
Zobel said the company is already on the planning stage on its mall renovation and the public may see parts of it over the next year through 2026.
In the case of Glorietta, Zobel said, Ayala is planning to reroute traffic to make the park area of the property a walkable space.
“It’ll expand the plaza so that the garden is connected to the entrance of Glorietta and you won’t have any cars there so people can walk, sit, enjoy. We gave a sneak peek to one of our tenant partners, longtime partners the other day, and they were shocked,” she said.
