Come home to Power Plant Mall

Come home to Power Plant MallPower Plant Mall wants you to come home this Christmas. The mall located in Rockwell Center has launched a drive to lure even more shoppers through its doors through well-loved yuletide activities, a profusion of new stores and the distinct Power Plant Mall experience.

“Come Home for Christmas at Power Plant Mall” codifies the wish of the team for their kapamilya to feel that, more than a go-to shopping place, the mall is their home not only for the holidays but also for the rest of the year.

“Every year, we are very excited to share our Christmas events and efforts and we hope everyone visits the mall to experience these,” says Leasing manager Lisa Gomez.

Christmas in the air

Indeed, by the time of the LopezLink interview, Christmas was definitely in the Power Plant Mall air. The Retail Operations and Design teams had spruced up the mall in festive amber and red, with hundreds of garlands and twinkling fairy lights festooning the posts and hallways. Planning the overall look of the mall for Christmas 2014 actually involved the whole Retail team, which contributed their own ideas for the theme, notes Gomez.

Aside from the events that have been enshrined as part of many a family’s yuletide traditions over the past 14 years—such as Musical Christmas, Santa’s Corner, Santa’s Wishing Station and the bazaars—the mall brings back its luxury-vehicle grand prize in its Christmas raffle. This year, one lucky shopper will get to drive home the very first BMW X4 xDrive20d in the Philippines.

“That’s another thing that our shoppers are very excited about. They say they do their Christmas shopping in Power Plant Mall because they look forward to our raffle,” Gomez shares.

Mike Lopez, Rockwell Land SVP, during an interview at the mallThe mall’s Christmas calendar will be boosted by the PLANT magazine Holiday Issue, which will share the ABCs of organizing memorable parties, as well as one-of-akind gift suggestions, and the holiday edition of Rockwell’s Secret Menu, where guests can feast on select offerings from the kitchens of Rockwell Center restaurants.

Moving forward

In the last three years, more than five new major malls have opened, while old malls have carried out their mall expansion. Thus, “more malls, more choices” just about sums up the 14-year-old mall’s current challenges. Power Plant Mall is one of only three major malls in the metro with less than 100,000 square meters of retail space.

For Gomez, their current size of 41,000 square meters definitely has its upside, chief of which is the intimacy and easy access from one store to another that it affords clients.

Still, habitués will appreciate that not only are expansion plans moving forward and will be completed in about three years, but also that the team is in talks to boost its tenancy mix with brands that will be a perfect fit for the new setup.

“There are admittedly a lot of choices out there now in terms of dining, fashion and lifestyle, and we can’t stop our market from trying to visit other malls because of this.This is why we’re very excited to offer them more choices when we roll out our mall expansion plans,” Gomez says.

Of course, being the assiduous learners and preparers that they are, the Power Plant teams involved are rolling up their sleeves and equipping themselves for the big change.

The best for the market

Majority of Retail’s operations, leasing and marketing teams take time out for a class photo“The whole Retail team— Operations, Leasing, Marketing, Design—and even the Cinema team, is studying and continuously having workshops. We’re working together so that the mall expansion is the best for the core market that we want to serve,” Gomez stresses.

Power Plant Mall has been quick to pick up lessons from the experience of other establishments with regard to their own expansions, such as ensuring that operations can continue unimpeded, shoppers are not in any way distracted or inconvenienced, and parking remains hassle-free. Or even minimizing the gap, appearance- and atmosphere-wise, between the old wing and the new one,which tends to put off shoppers.

“When we do it, we’ll really do it right. And we’ll make sure that our clients will still come back when the mall expansion is finished,” Gomez promises.

Rockwell Land president Nestor J. Padilla and SVP Malou Pineda 4th and 5th from left with l-r Engr. Lucky Jay Damaso Tin Coqueiro Maika Dinglasan and Engr. Wil Gilbuena at the Cook Out to Help Out fundraiser for Yolanda victimsBut in the here and now, Power Plant Mall shoppers will not lack for the novel and the current. This year alone, the mall welcomed new tenants Repetto, Y-3 Common Thread, Rags2Riches, Ronnie & Joe, and Uniqlo, as well as home furnishing stores Purple Orchid and Grassroots. On the F&B side, 8 Cuts, CDP Table, Vom Fass and Yabu were among those that were added to the mix.

What’s more, the mall’s evergreen anchor store, Zara, emerges from a refresh in time for the expected influx of Christmas shoppers.

Wi-Fi ready

And there’s its venture into the e-commerce realm, putting a virtual Power Plant Mall within reach of netizens. Its online shopping business via the www.powerplantmall.com website currently serves Rockwell Center and will eventually expand to other areas in Metro Manila and the provinces.

Aside from being able to handle cinema ticket purchases online, the mall is now 100% Wi-Fi ready, Gomez shares.

Young performers join the mall’s Musical Christmas activitiesDespite its imposing image, the Power Plant Mall formula is quite straightforward: content + experience.

“We have the right content that our market wants, and the experience is one of the major things we focus on; this begins once you enter the mall, in the parking area, until you go on the escalators, when you speak to our front liners, and all the other touch points of the mall.

“It’s the overall experience that we give utmost importance to. At the end of the day, we can have the right content, but if the shoppers don’t like their experience, they get turned off. You want to be in a mall that you’re comfortable in and you get the distinct experience you want,” Gomez says.

Come home to Power Plant Mall