REAL-ESTATE developer DDC Land has launched its multi-million shopping and dining complex dubbed the “Garden Plaza” to cater to the residents of its housing project Garden Villas and surrounding communities in Laguna.
No less than Sta. Rosa City Mayor Arlene B. Arcillas led the planting of the time capsule during last week’s groundbreaking ceremony of the “arcade-type” community mall, together with DDC Land executives and partners.
“This shopping mall or center will truly give services to the people of Garden Villas, to the people of those five barangays [it covers], and to the people of the City of Sta. Rosa,” Arcillas said, citing the economic and employment opportunities it could generate for the city government and its constituents.
Approximately, more than 3,000 families residing within the five barangays of Garden Villas namely Labas, Pooc, Caingin, Ibaba and Malusak, as well as the outside communities are expected to benefit from this soon-to-rise commercial center.
This one-hectare shopping strip will have as its anchor tenant SaveMore of the SM Supermarket, which will occupy the lion share of 3,000 square meters at the ground floor.
“I’m happy that we have signed [on November 23] the Memorandum of Agreement and set the foundation for a prosperous relationship with SM for the next 15 years,” said Martin Sutter, DDC Land president.
Other businesses to be set up in DDC Garden Plaza are the franchise chains of Chic-Boy, Shakeys, Chowking and KFC; foreign and homegrown coffee shops Starbucks and Figaro; as well as food kiosks Potato Corners and Bibingkinitan. Fun Ranch will also be housed as a recreational component of the mall.
The two-story shopping and dining strip is designed by DQA Design and Planning Inc. to have easy access to rotundas, sidewalks and wide roads leading to Garden Villas communities.
There will be a covered transport terminal for jeepneys, buses, motorbikes and tricycles. Parking spaces will be provided also for owners of private vehicles.
“We target to open the plaza late October or early November next year,” DDC Land Vice President Edna Sutter said, disclosing the other developments to follow include a school and a church, among other institutions to be established within the five-hectare commercial development area.
Formerly a Cebu-based ship repair company, DDC (Dry Dock Corp.) Land Inc. is a 20-year-old land and housing developer that offers low-priced housing developments in Cebu and Laguna.
The latest of its projects is the Sta. Rosa Garden Villas, a 70-hectare residential project targeted for the working class with salaries of P20,000 and above.
