Shoppers rejoice!

Robinsons Supermarket is the supermarket retailer of the Gokongwei group. The man behind it is John Gokongwei. He is the third wealthiest man in the Philippines.

Robinsons Place is opening in Puerto Princesa tomorrow. This is a big deal. It marks a milestone in the continuing urbanization of Puerto Princesa.

I spent my first 28 years growing up in Quezon City, Greenhills, and Valle Verde. These became a part of MetroManila. I spent my next 25 years living in suburban Chicago. MetroManila’s population when I left in 1985 was 7 million. Chicago’s was 10 million when I left in 2010. It’s obvious that I’m familiar with large cities.

Urbanization needs to be managed but that’s for another post. Today, we’ll just rejoice in this bit of news!

Gokongwei’s property (encircled) is in barangay San Manuel. Puerto Princesa’s city fathers want the city to do much of its growing in barangay San Manuel and its neighboring barangays.

Facing south. This is traffic coming from the city The traffic worry-spot is located by the billboards. Notice the motorcycles parked along the shoulder? Imagine them in motion.

Facing north. This traffic is headed north. You go this way if you’re headed to El Nido, Honda Bay, the Underground River. The other spot that can create bottlenecks is directly behind the “Buy 1 Take 1” banner.

All these photos were taken within the past seven days.

Work on the front retail spaces in progress.

I know one coffeeshop operator that was able to lease for 400 per square meter (at least for the first six months). Also, 5% of rent is based on store revenue.

Taken from its neighbor across the street, the headquarters of the local electrical company, a cooperative called PALECO, for Palawan Electrical Cooperative.

There will be four cinemas. These look like the marquees.

Man working at the top of the tallest sign tower.

Potential Traffic Hotspots

Traffic coming from the south (the city). Those tricycles will be the cause of most of the traffic.

Facing north.

Previous Posts

I reported about the mall back in June 2011 and, before that, in February 2011. Robinsons Mall was the topic of this blog’s very first post.

Paleco

A clever move on Gokongwei’s people’s part was to situate their property as close to the power source as possible. Right across the street is the former National Power’s main generating station. It is old, requires considerable downtime for maintenance, but at least it’s across the street.

I don’t his name but he’s Paleco’s friendly face.