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Harrison Plaza

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Coordinates: 14°33′45.5″N 120°59′23″E / 14.562639°N 120.98972°E / 14.562639; 120.98972
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Harrison Plaza
Harrison Plaza logo
Map
LocationMalate, Manila, Philippines
Coordinates14°33′45.5″N 120°59′23″E / 14.562639°N 120.98972°E / 14.562639; 120.98972
AddressAdriatico Street cor. Ocampo Street
Opening date1976; 48 years ago (1976)
Closing dateDecember 31, 2019; 4 years ago (2019-12-31)[1]
ManagementTourist Trade and Travel Corporation (from Martel family)[1]
OwnerCity Government of Manila[2][3]
No. of stores and servicesMore than 200
No. of anchor tenants4
Total retail floor area178,000 m2 (1,920,000 sq ft)
No. of floors2
ParkingOpen carpark

Harrison Plaza (HP) was a shopping mall situated along Adriatico Street corner Ocampo Street in the district of Malate in Manila, Philippines. Opened in 1976 and closed at the end of 2019, it was the first modern and major shopping mall located in the area. The shopping mall building has been demolished to give way for a redevelopment of the site into residential building complex with a shopping center called SM City Harrison by SM Prime Holdings.

History

First opening

SM Department Store in Harrison Plaza

The property was built in a former cemetery, which was destroyed during World War II, and cleared of graves afterwards. Before the development, the area used to be known as Fort San Antonio Abad in Malate, Manila, Harrison Park, and Ermita Cemetery, respectively.[2][4]

Harrison Plaza opened in 1976 and was the first modern shopping mall in the Philippines after the opening of Ali Mall. The Martel family leased the lot on the place where the mall is standing under the contract with the city government of Manila.[2] Despite being built on the site of a former cemetery, very few urban legends involved the place.[5][6] The retail center was the first air-conditioned shopping mall in the Philippines.[7]

Fire, two-year closure, second opening

After the mall was razed by a fire[8] the shopping mall was shuttered for renovations which was done from 1982 and 1984.[7] When it was reopened to the public in 1984, the mall featured a cinema, amusement rides, Jai alai fronton site (until it was converted to SM Hypermarket in 2010), a fountain, a Catholic chapel, and a hotel in the 1990s. It was anchored by the country's major Department Store chains like SM Department Store and Rustan's.

Aftermath

While new malls were being built by SM, Ayala, Robinsons, and Megaworld, as well as a makeover of Ali Mall,[when?] Harrison Plaza changed very little and the environment around it became "quite unpleasant as well with urban decay, squalor, and disorder".[9]

In June 2016, it was reported that SM Prime Holdings is planning to invest ₱39.44 billion to redevelop the mall and planned to put up business process outsourcing offices and residential towers in the Harrison Plaza complex. The firm is partnering with the city government of Manila which has economic interest from the redevelopment project.[10]

In April 2018, SM Prime Holdings was finalizing a deal to buy out the Martel family from its contract with the City of Manila to redevelop and manage Harrison Plaza.[3] Since the shopping center was in need of redevelopment and lagged behind other malls in the metro, SM Prime Holdings plans to build a new shopping center with a residential condominium above it.[3] The Martel family's contract of the mall would expire by 2020 or 2022.[3]

Closure and sale to SM

Harrison Plaza on January 1, 2020

On November 14, 2019, the Martels gave notice to the mall's tenants that the mall would cease its operations on December 31, 2019 with the family giving them time to clear out the area until January 31, 2020.[2][1]

After the deadline, the property will be demolished to give way for SM City Harrison, a "massive project" of SM Prime Holdings reportedly a condominium building complex with a shopping mall similar to The Podium.[8] The structure was demolished by October 2021 in preparation for construction.[11]

Tenants

Harrison Plaza in 2015

At its peak, the Harrison Plaza housed 180 stores, eateries, and service outlets. It also had four movie houses and a supermarket.[7] It also had a jai alai fronton prior to the sports' ban by the national government. The sports venue was replaced by an outlet of SM Hypermarket.[2]

  • The 2019 film The Mall, The Merrier was largely filmed in and around Harrison Plaza where it was used to portray the fictional Tamol Mall, where mysterious incidents occur.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c @hanahtabios (December 29, 2019). "EXCLUSIVE: The final memo from the Martels ordering all mall tenants to pull out all their items until January 31, 2020. Harrison Plaza ceased operations on December 31, 2019" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b c d e Bueza, Michael (December 30, 2019). "FAST FACTS: Harrison Plaza". Rappler. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d Dumlao-Abadilla, Doris (April 27, 2018). "SM Prime poised to take over Harrison Plaza". business.inquirer.net. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  4. ^ "12 Random Facts About Manila That Will Blow Your Mind". FilipiKnow.net. July 2, 2014.
  5. ^ "Malate: 'Manila's crown jewel'". INQUIRER.net. March 16, 2019. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  6. ^ "The Most Haunted Places in Metro Manila | Balay.ph". Balay PH. November 6, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c De Guzman, Nicai (June 24, 2019). "Whatever Happened to Harrison Plaza?". Esquire. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  8. ^ a b Valenzuela, Nikka (January 1, 2020). "Harrison Plaza closes shop after 43 years". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  9. ^ "Of Bygone Days and An Uncertain Future: The Saga Of Harrison Plaza". The Urban Roamer. July 24, 2016. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  10. ^ Dumlao-Abadilla, Doris (June 20, 2016). "SM eyes Harrison Plaza redevelopment". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  11. ^ "Drone video: Ginibang Harrison Plaza" [Drone video: Demolished Harrison Plaza] (in Tagalog). October 6, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
  12. ^ "Harrison Plaza, tuluyan nang magsasara sa katapusan ng 2019" [Harrison Plaza to close this 2019]. PEP.ph (in Tagalog). Philippine Entertainment Portal.

Media related to Harrison Plaza at Wikimedia Commons

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