Groundbreaking ceremony held for Araneta Center’s Gateway Mall 2

This is especially integral for the enterprise since they manage the records of their natural household and personal care products, as well as other operational processes, manually.

Social sabbatical volunteers from SAP Concur in the Philippines contributed in streamlining Messy Bessy’s accounting framework. Their efforts included specific tasks such as appointing data owners, maintaining and owning data updates needed, building online order forms, and creating an excel network to synergize functions in Messy Bessy’s processes.

”The SAP Social Sabbatical program was a great experience because we learned so much and we were touched by the support of the team,” added Lopez. “We really got the advantage of reducing redundancies and became more efficient with our time so that we can focus on what really matters in our work – the young adults in our program.”

Helping enterprises in their mission to change society for good

Cropital, a crowdfunding platform that connects individuals to help finance farmers, also participated in the social sabbatical. Cropital CEO, Ruel Amparo, founded the social enterprise with Rachel de Villa and Lester Wayne Pile, who serve as CTO and CFO respectively. Ruel, Rachel, and Lester realized the Philippines is largely an agricultural country, yet 2 out of 3 farmers live below the poverty line – a reality that they deem as unacceptable and created Cropital to have a firm mission to change that.

To start, Cropital sought out to augment the income and productivity of farmers through crowdfunding. By building a community of investors they call “impactmakers,” farmers can have access to scalable and sustainable financing.

“Our business model revolves around providing users and investors an opportunity to directly impact the lives of our unsung heroes while still growing their money. By joining our community, we provide local farmers a chance to continue producing crops and have a better life,” said Amparo.

Cropital’s biggest challenge, however, is that despite the many members, the numbers of those who avail are too few. The company needs valuable insights to identify other factors that hinder them from increasing the beneficiaries in Santamasi, Laguna, where they operate.

ARANETA Group officials and executives from partner Megawide Construction Corporation led the ceremonial groundbreaking and time capsule laying at the site of the new mall on Tuesday, July 31.

The activity was led by senior officials from Araneta Center, Inc., namely SVP-Operations Mr. Antonio T. Mardo, SVP-Business Development Mr. John B. Castelo, VP-Leasing Ms. Lorna D. Fabian, VP-Materials Management Mr. Noel B. Leonor, Head of Architecture & Engineering Ms. Bernadette M. Tan, Senior Management Consultant Mr. Rowell Recinto, and Management ConsultantArchitecture & Engineering Ms. Julie I. Castro; among others.

Officials from partner Megawide Construction Corporation, AVP Mr. Romeo Furigay, and EVP Mr. Ronald Paulo, were also on hand for the event.

In an interview with media reps, Araneta Center Inc. SVP-Operations Mr. Antonio Mardo noted that the new mall complements its award-winning predecessor. “We needed more space to accommodate more of the retail operators and F&B (food and beverage) operators in the country,” he said.

In his opening speech, Senior Management Consultant Mr. Rowell Recinto pointed out that Gateway Mall 2 is the latest project in the Araneta Center’s redevelopments, and with it, “The Center continues to build on its pioneering heritage in shopping and entertainment developments.”

Recinto added, “We are still committed to continue to enhance Araneta Center to become a more vibrant community” and that Gateway Mall 2 enhances the Center’s position as a leading edge lifestyle hub with its welcoming design, extensive shopping and dining ofTaguig THE LAYING of the time capsule at the Gateway Mall 2 site, participated in by Araneta Center Inc. senior executives, and officials of Megawide Construction Corp. (PR PHOTO) ferings, and pampering public spaces.

Aside from offering vast spaces for retail and F&B operators, the Gateway Mall 2 will also have a state-of-the-art Cineplex, an organic vegetable garden where shoppers can have the farm-to-table experience, a spacious activity area, a unique food hall, and a 500-seater, fully air-conditioned iconic chapel.

The mall, which will be connected to the Smart Araneta Coliseum and the Farmers Plaza, is expected to open in the third quarter of 2020.

Adjacent to the new mall will be the first Ibis Styles hotel in the country. It will be operated by AccorHotels, the same team behind the Novotel Manila Araneta Center, and is expected to attract guests with its charming design and topnotch service.

The groundbreaking and capsule laying event was also attended by Binibining Pilipinas winners Miss Universe Philippines Catriona Gray, Binibining Pilipinas International Ma. Ahtisa Manalo, Binibining Pilipinas Supranational Jehza Huelar, Binibining Pilipinas Grand International Eva Patalinjug, Binibining Pilipinas Globe Michele Gumabao, first runner-up Vickie Rushton and second runner-up Samantha Bernardo.

For more updates, visit www.aranetacenter. net or follow us on our social media pages: @ aranetacenter on Twitter and Facebook, and @ thearanetacenter on Instagram. (PR)