Trinoma challenges SM City North Edsa

Perhaps you have been to SM City North Edsa – the country’s 2nd largest mall (Yes, it has overthrown SM Megamall in terms of floor size but still Mall of Asia is the biggest, well at least for now…)

Now remember SM City Annex? Take a look at it now. The encircled red area is where it used to be. Now it has fallen to rubbles.

SM City North Edsa indeed demolished the SM City Annex in a matter of 2 months. That is because they are preparing for a head-to-head battle with the newest mall – the TriNoma, which is an Ayala mall sitting just beside SM North Edsa and is just a few months away from being completed.

It is indeed a very tough competition for the SM’s first and most profitable supermall. They are in extreme “Panic” mode now that they demolished SM Annex and they are now building a new Annex. They are not satisfied with mere renovation… SM, being on Red Alert threat from Trinoma, demolished the entire annex to build a better annex which is rumored to feature the second “IMAX” theater of the country.

Meanwhile just across the street, TriNoma (which stands for Triangle North Mall) is about to open their flagship department store, Landmark come May 2007

As you could see from the above photo (sorry it’s not that clear), the TriNoma, which is also a huge mall made a very wise decision. They connected their main building to MRT (a strategy that SM North missed out).

On the other hand, SM, being the number one mall in the country just cannot let anyone stand their way. They are always ready to face competition. As such they removed their parking area and phased-out the Supersale club. As a result? A new building called “The Block”

The Block is one of their answers to TriNoma’s challenge. It is very high-class and contains signature brands that only rich kids could buy. The new building contains rare shops that you couldn’t find in any ordinary SM Supermall. Here is what “The Block” looks from the inside

Astounding right? Well what about their main building?

The main building is undergoing major renovations. As SM would like to call it, the entire supermall is undergoing “Redevelopment”. Though I don’t think they would demolish the main building, what they are doing is that they are renovating the entire structure inside in order to come up with something similar to “The Block”. A few months from now and the main building would also turn into something like this:

As the day passes by The TriNoma is starting to look better and better. I hear that the inside of the Trinoma would contain state-of-the art architecture, hanging gardens and the like. They have prepared so much in challenging SM. They have even opened new roads leading to their mall. Anyway this is the side view of the Trinoma

I couldn’t take a front photo of the mall since it is still under construction. It’s front is on the side of Agham Road near Mindanao Avenue.

On May 2007 TriNoma will have a soft opening of their department store and supermarket named Landmark. The grand opening will be December 2007 – just in time for Christmas! I couldn’t wait what these two malls would look like after the constructions are over.

The fight between Ayala’s Trinoma and Sy’s SM is just about to start. It is indeed a Battle of the Malls. No matter who turns out to be number one in this very stiff competition, at the end of the day it is still us, the consumers who win. Because now we have a choice! A choice where we could get the best value out of our hard-earned money.

So let the battle begin… 😀