Glorietta

Glorietta

Glorietta 5 (right) facing Glorietta 4 (left) across Courtyard Drive, April 2014
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Location	Ayala Center, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines
Opening date	Old Glorietta 1 & 2: 1991 Glorietta 3: 1992 Glorietta 4: 1998 Glorietta 5: 2009 New Glorietta 1 & 2: November 5 and December 7, 2012
Developer	Ayala Land
Management	Ayala Malls
Owner	Zobel de Ayala family
No. of stores and services	500+ shops and restaurants
No. of anchor tenants	5
Total retail floor area	250,000 m2 (2,700,000 sq ft)
No. of floors	Glorietta 1, 2, and 4: 4 Glorietta 3: 3 Glorietta 5: 8
Public transit access	3 Ayala BGC Bus:  WX01   EX01   L01   NX01   NR01  EDSA Ayala  E  Ayala  14  15  16  Glorietta 5
Website	ayalamalls.com/malls/info/1/Glorietta

Glorietta is a shopping mall complex in the Ayala Center, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. The mall is owned by Ayala Land and operated through its subsidiary, the Ayala Malls. The mall is divided into five sections (named Glorietta 1–5) and contains many shops and restaurants, as well as cinemas, a gym, arcades and a large central activity center, often used to stage events.

Glorietta 1-4 is integrated with the nearby Greenbelt, SM Makati, Rustan's Makati and The Landmark. Glorietta 5 is fully detached, located in front of the lot formerly occupied by an open parking area between Hotel InterContinental Manila and Rustan's Makati.^[1] Coinciding with the redevelopment, the tenants affected by the October 19, 2007 explosion were given an option to relocate there.^[2]

History[]

A shot of the central atrium area during an electronics event

Glorietta was originally a park centrally located in the Makati Commercial Center complex. The Glorietta park, with its outdoor stage for event hosting, was built in the 1970s. The Makati Commercial Center complex consisted of several small arcades (Maranaw Arcade, Makati Arcade, Angela Arcade, Lising Arcade, Mayfair Center, Bricktown), cinemas (Rizal Theater and Quad Cinemas) and retail outlets (including Makati Supermart, Rustan's, Shoe Mart, Mercury Drug). In 1990, Ayala Corporation decided to redevelop Makati Commercial Center into a new development named the Ayala Center. The plan called for the redevelopment of the Glorietta park and the surrounding shopping arcades into a single shopping mall.

The new Glorietta mall opened in 1992 with a gross leasable area of 250,000 m² (2,700,000 sq ft), envisioned as one of the largest malls in the Philippines. The mall was divided into four sections: Quad 1 - which retained the original four Quad cinemas and would operate until 2010; Quad 2 - which had an indoor theme park named Glico's Great Adventure and was soon to become the main setting for a deadly explosion in 2007; Quad 3 - which would soon be the home of international restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe and TGI Fridays; and Glorietta 4, a new hub for entertainment with a Timezone branch and seven additional cinemas, and was also home to Oakwood Premier (now Ascott Makati), a premier hotel that stood on top of the mall and became the setting for the Oakwood mutiny, a political siege led by the Magdalo Group which occurred in 2003. All four components were home to a variety of shops and restaurants. While Quad 1, 2, and 3 all opened in 1992, Glorietta 4 opened in 1998, just six years later, as a result of the construction of Oakwood Premier. With the opening of Glorietta 4, Quads 1, 2 and 3 would be renamed Glorietta 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

Tenants that set up shop in Ayala Center prior to Glorietta's development, most notably Mercury Drug, Automatic Center, Jollibee, Max's, and McDonald's also found a new home in Glorietta. The department stores surrounding the mall, SM Makati, The Landmark, and Rustans, were utilized by Glorietta as its anchor tenants for its supermarkets and department stores.

By the mid- and late 1990s, Glorietta gained popularity as a premier mall. It has an air-conditioned atrium with water features, an indoor children's playground, and an activity center that hosts concerts and shows.^{[citation needed]}

The mall was known as Quad until 1997, when it adopted Glorietta as its present name, though the Glorietta name was used as a secondary branding since 1992. Glorietta is a Spanish word used to describe the public meeting place in Spanish colonial-era designed towns throughout the Philippines.

Other new buildings were also constructed between 1999 and 2005, making Glorietta larger than its original construction plan.

Glorietta Building complex in 2008

The rebuilt Glorietta 1 & 2

In 2010, Glorietta 1 and 2 were demolished for redevelopment with a new mall, hotel (Holiday Inn & Suites and Fairmont Suites) BPO offices and condos (Park Terraces and Garden Terraces). Glorietta 1 was opened on November 5, 2012 with a new activity center, as Glorietta 2 opened on December 7 of the same year. Glorietta 3 is planned to be demolished to finalize a redeveloped Glorietta mall complex, hailed as the crown jewel of Ayala, but was pushed back to a later date for undisclosed reasons. The mall area will be renovated instead, with a new wellness zone opening at the 3rd Level and a tenant reshuffling process will be done.

Almost all of the tenants in Glorietta 5 were closed with Bo's Coffee, Baskin Robbins, Anytime Fitness, and some other tenants left at the mall. The entire ground and second levels of Glorietta 5 were replaced by a flagship Uniqlo store, bigger than its existing store at that wing. The Uniqlo flagship store opened in October 2018.

A new roofdeck on top of Glorietta 1 and 2 was built, dubbed as "Top of The Glo", after a naming competition held in their Facebook page. Under Mitsubishi's partnership, a Japan-inspired retail area opened in June 2019 at the roof deck with HalloHallo as its anchor.^[3] The roofdeck retail area has a GLA of 2,500 square meters (27,000 sq ft).^[4][5] The roofdeck is connected to the 4th level of Holiday Inn and Suites Makati and via a walkway to Glorietta 4 Cinemas at the same level. The Glorietta 2 section of the roofdeck, which is dubbed "Japan Town," opened in June 2019.

In 2019, a remodeled Food Choices area in Glorietta 4 was opened.^[6] The section opened with more food shops, and the area was extended into the location formerly occupied by Automatic Centre and BLIMS Fine Furniture. Consequently, both these stores were moved to the former location of National Bookstore's third floor location in Glorietta 1 as part of the remodeling project. BLIMS re-opened at its new location in April, while Automatic Centre opened their relocated store in June.

A future walkway will connect to the new Ayala Mall built in the One Ayala complex, located on the former Hotel InterContinental Manila site. The main atrium at the center of the mall was closed for a major renovation in early 2019 and reopened on November in the same year.

Incidents and accidents[]

2000 bombing[]

On May 17, 2000, thirteen (13) people were injured in an explosion at Glorietta 2. Police said the blast (by a homemade explosive) originated from a restroom of a restaurant and affected Timezone, a nearby game arcade center, as well as the ceiling of the bridge connecting Glorietta 2 to the then Park Square 2. Two rival gangs were seen fighting near the restaurant shortly before the blast occurred.^[7]

Oakwood mutiny (July 27, 2003)[]

Magdalo soldiers led by Lt. Sr. Grade Antonio Trillanes IV took control of the Oakwood apartments in Makati. Glorietta, where the Oakwood Premier stood, was also closed during the siege.

2005 Valentine's Day bombings[]

A passenger bus was bombed in Makati, near Glorietta. Four people were killed and 36 injured. On the same day, a mall in General Santos City was also bombed. Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility, with spokesperson Abu Solaiman saying on a radio interview: "This is our Valentine gift to Gloria".

2007 explosion (October 19, 2007)[]

An explosion in Glorietta 2 killed eleven people and injured a hundred others. Initially, authorities termed it a liquefied petroleum gas explosion in a restaurant, but later began investigating the possibility that the explosion may have been a C-4 bomb.^[8][9] The explosion destroyed much of Glorietta 2's main lobby and vehicles parked outside. Several days later, October 23, 2007, senior government officials expressed "a high level of certainty" that the explosion was an accident,^[10] but the bomb theory has not been totally ruled out. This was brought on by the inability of experts to find bomb components after four days of rigorous investigation. It is believed that the explosion was caused by underground structures in the mall that might have triggered the blast, pending further investigation.

Fire incidents[]

• October 21, 2007: A fire broke out at noon in the kitchen of one of the restaurants in Glorietta 4, not affected by the 2007 Glorietta blast two days earlier. It was put out by firemen an hour later.^[11]
• November 20, 2016: At around 8 in the evening, a fire struck a restaurant in Glorietta 3 right above the Gold's Gym branch, without injuries or casualties.^[12]
• April 10, 2017: A minor fire broke out at the Glorietta 2 roof deck past 6 in the evening. A fire out was declared less than 25 minutes later.^[13] There were no reported injuries.^[14]
• May 19, 2019: A minor fire incident occurred at a milk tea shop being renovated at Glorietta 2 at between 5:59pm and 6:20pm. Bureau of Fire Protection declared a fire out at 6:31pm. The incident left one injured.^[15][16]

Awards[]

• Shopping Center of the Year (Philippine Retailer's Association and Department of Trade & Industry, 2002 & 2004)^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• Ayala Center
• List of largest shopping malls
• List of largest shopping malls in the Philippines
• List of shopping malls in Metro Manila

References[]

External links[]

• Glorietta Official Website