SM Mall of Asia, also abbreviated as SM MoA or sim...

SM Mall of Asia, also abbreviated as SM MoA or simply MoA, is a large shopping mall in Bay City, Pasay, Philippines, near the SM Central Business Park, the Manila Bay, and the southern end of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA).

Owned and developed by SM Prime Holdings, the largest mall chain owner and developer in the Philippines, it has a land area of 67 hectares (170 acres), a gross floor area of approximately 432,891 m2 (4,659,600 sq ft), and offers 46,647 m2 (502,100 sq ft) for conventions and social functions. The area attracts a daily average foot traffic of about 200,000 people.

It is currently the fourth largest shopping mall in the Philippines and the fourteenth in the world. When it opened in 2006 it was the largest shopping mall in the Philippines until SM City North EDSA was redeveloped in 2008, and was relegated to third place by the expansion of SM Megamall from 2011 to 2015 when SM Seaside City Cebu opened to the public before returning to this spot in 2017.

Following the mall's opening in 2006, it caused several smaller shopping malls nearby to close, such as Pearl Plaza and Uniwide Coastal Mall both in Paranaque.

The mall is the centerpiece project of SM Prime at the SM Central Business Park, where five one-story buildings serve as the company's corporate offices (the sixth building being occupied by TeleTech Holdings, Inc. as their flagship site in the country).

The SM Mall of Asia's design team includes Arquitectonica, design architect; Architect Robert Carag Ong, Architect of Record, GHT Services, project manager, and Hilmarc's Construction Corp. (for the South Parking Building, Main Mall, and Entertainment Mall), and Monolith Construction Development Corp. (for the North Parking Building), general contractors.[citation needed]

The mall would have opened before Christmas Day of 2005 but had been delayed due to hitches in the delivery of construction materials. Frequent rains in the last quarter of 2005 also delayed the turnover of mall space to tenants. SM Prime decided to move the opening date to March 3, 2006.[citation needed]

On February 27, 2006, local newspaper Manila Standard Today, reported that a team of Pasay City engineers found huge cracks underneath the structure, which was causing the structure to vibrate. When questioned about the inspection, the Pasay City Engineering Department denied making any statement regarding defects in the Mall of Asia. Engineer Edwin Javaluyas, Pasay City engineering officer, in his letter to SM Prime Holdings Inc., said he never stated that the city hall's engineering department inspected the Mall of Asia on February 23, 2006.

SM Prime, however, decided to move the opening to May 21 of that year. Jeffrey Lim, corporate information officer of SM Prime Holdings, emphasized that a rescheduling of the mall's opening was made to give the company an opportunity to allow more tenants to open shops and denied that the change was due to structural defects.

The mall was officially inaugurated by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with a special screening of Everest in the San Miguel Coca-Cola IMAX Theater. The movie was shown three days after Philippine tri-athlete Leo Oracion reached the treacherous mountain's summit.

Excerpt from Wikipedia