DoubleDragon bags R4.97-B lease deal with SM Savemore

DoubleDragon Properties Corporation’s subsidiary CityMall Commercial Centers, Inc. has simultaneously signed 10year lease contracts amounting to R4.97 billion for an additional 22 SM Savemore Supermarkets in CityMall sites.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, DoubleDragod said these community malls will be located in various parts of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and are all slated for opening this year.

Once the target 100 CityMalls are completed, they are expected to generate at least R20 billion in rental income during the first 10 years of operations just from supermarket tenants alone.

“The signing of another 22 SM Savemore Supermarkets to locate in our soon-to-open CityMalls, is a testament to the value of what CityMall is providing to modern retail brands and the relevance of the platform we provide in their expansion into the next frontier of retail,” said DoubleDragon Chief Investment Officer Hannah Yulo.

As of the end of last year, DoubleDragon has already completed 332,500 sqm of leasable space and the Company expects to have at least 600,000 sqm of leasable space completed by the end of 2018.

As of the first quarter of 2018, the first 28 operational malls in the portfolio are over 95 percent leased out.

“We now have 28 operational malls, plus the 22 more malls slated for completion this year, we are in line with our goal of having 50 completed malls by the end of this year,” said DoubleDragon Chairman Edgar “Injap” Sia II.

Sia explained that, CityMall’s relevance in the provincial areas is becoming more and more evident due to the organic shift from traditional retail to modern retail in the Tier 3 provincial areas of the country, and the noticeable penetration of e-commerce in the Tier 1 urban areas of the country.