Star Mall (trademark infringement not intended)

The New SM

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, 

but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

—Vincent van Gogh 

Big dreams beget big realities. The stars at night are creatures of the heavens that live up high in the sky. But no one knows when they come down on earth. Well, I believe they do.

Shakespeare in his fastidious drama, Julius Caesar, said that “the fault… is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” And so be it. We make our own stars. Theoretically, once a star is born, two things can happen—it lives on or perishes. It perishes—but it ignites a Super Nova that can live forever.

SM Marketing Team and/or the bosses.

The world is now infested with commercialism, with inevitable consumption. Those that believe that it makes us more of an underling, as Shakespeare would have it, are leaning into a fallacy, a hasty generalization. Commercialization is now a necessity; for how can we possibly live in this community without engaging in business? Almost everything we are enjoying right now—from the pencils and ball pens for school to laptops and mobile phones for office—is but a product of commercialism. It is us who make ourselves an underling, who sometimes refuse to accept development and change.

At a micro level, the Philippines has just given birth to a star—the SM City Novaliches. And who would have thought this blog is about a mall, anyway? Yes, this is about that mall. And it will have to boost commercialism in the Philippines; that is for sure.

My U.P. classmate (the one in green).. An investor in SM!! :)

As a background, the northern district of Quezon City is composed of Novaliches and is primarily residential. Fairview is the most famous area of Novaliches. The La Mesa Dam Watershed occupies the eastern portion. The La Mesa Dam supplies much of northern Metro Manila's water supply. Adjacent to the watershed is the La Mesa Eco-Park, where one can stroll and unwind at Metro Manila's only forest space. Also located in the park are convention centers, picnic areas, swimming pools, an orchidarium, and a large lagoon for boating activities. It was also the site of the rowing and dragon boat events for the 2005 Southeast Asian Games. Rowing is regularly done here. Also located here are three big malls: SM City Fairview, Robinsons Place Novaliches, and the newest SM City Novaliches.

The name Novaliches probably came from the name of a village outside Valencia, Spain. In the 1800s, the district was known as Hacienda Tala to settlers who cultivated the land and considered it a star ("tala") from heaven. The haciendero, Marquez de Novaliches, was given the title due to his services in the Carlist Wars of the 1800s. Novaliches was also a gathering-place for the Katipunan during the Philippine Revolution; a tree where Andres Bonifacio reportedly sought shade is still standing in the campus of the Metro Manila College - Jordan Plaines Campus. The town was once part of Rizal province before being ceded to Quezon City in the 1940s. During World War II, the La Mesa Dam and Balara Filters were prime targets for Japanese and American attacks, being the water sources for most of the northern part of Manila and Rizal. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quezon_City)

Ms. Ma-an (extreme right) and the rest of the marketing geniuses.

Novaliches City, as of this writing, has 97,976,603 residents. (http://www.tageo.com/index-e-rp-v-f2-d-m3365211.htm) Novaliches’ primary source of income and capital is undoubtedly its population, a great number of which are unemployed.

SM City Novaliches was launched on August 24, 2010 for tenant viewing (http://www.facebook.com/smnovaliches). It opened itself to the public on October 22, 2010. This plan for a mall originated when SM Prime Holdings, Inc. thought of building a P1.5-billion shopping mall on the five-hectare camping site of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines, right in front of ABC-5 or the Associated Broadcasting Co. in San Bartolome, Novaliches, Quezon City. SM Investments Corp. Chief Finance Officer Jose Sio said the company recently purchased the property. He said the company was finalizing the design of the mall and planned to start construction by 2009. SM Novaliches mall is SM Prime’s third in Quezon City, after SM North Edsa and SM Fairview, and the 14th in Metro Manila. The company earlier said that it planned to spend P33 billion over the next four years for the construction of new and expansion of existing malls. SM Prime is also looking to construct three to four malls in China over the next four years. (http://wikimapia.org/5217924/SM-City-Novaliches)

SM City Nova: Breaking Borders Beyond Industry

SM, indeed, is a powerhouse in the commercial industry in the country. How does it help our economy? Last I heard, the government of P-Noy is working on the Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines. The center, which was under the newly-issued Executive Order No. 8, aims to accelerate the financing, construction and operation of key government infrastructure projects. P-Noy said that “there is a need to fast-track the implementation of the Public-Private Partnership programs and projects as a cornerstone strategy of the national development to accelerate the infrastructure development of the country and sustain economic growth.” I bet SM will not hesitate to cooperate with this project, because prior to the enactment of the executive order, SM has been consistent in its goals to help build lives and dreams by providing jobs to thousands of Filipinos.

Tenant Viewing, SM City Nova

SM City Novaliches, without a doubt, will open doors again for Filipinos who are losing even a bleak of hope to find jobs. It would not only welcome them to work, but it would also showcase hidden talents and skills of the residents of Novaliches. I am a fan of SM Taytay; and I, myself, have witnessed how the mall started fresh and voila, now an avenue for career opportunities and home-grown talents. I even had the chance to join a blogging contest just by dropping by the mall and eventually win third place (I’m not bragging lol, please see this: http://squallmongrel.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html). These are small things that ordinary people (like me) could appreciate: a sanctuary for the talents that they have; for their longing to be noticed someday.

Photos courtesy of Mr. Jason Alvarez, SM Brand Manager

I am so inspired to write this one, as I would like to contribute to SM’s aspiration to reach out to the Filipino community. And SM Novaliches, I know, will not fail us. Kudos to my SM Nova marketing friends, Jason, Ma-An, et al.! Show them that SM Nova is a star that will forever shine for the hapless Filipinos.

And so I believe, the newest “Super-Nova” of the shopping scene—SM City Novaliches—is not only the newest and most energetic venue for a Stellar Shopping, but also a living testimony of honest-to-good commercialism and social responsibility, "breaking borders beyond industry."