SM Aura Premier is a large upscale shopping mall located along McKinley Parkway corner 26th Street,

Bonifacio Global City Bonifacio may refer to: Places * Bonifacio, Corse-du-Sud, a town in Corsica, France * Strait of Bonifacio, separating Corsica from Sardinia * Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental, a municipality in the Philippines * Bonifacio Global City, a central b ...

Taguig Taguig (), officially the City of Taguig ( fil, Lungsod ng Taguig), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Metro Manila, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 886,722 people. Located in the northwestern shores of ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, owned by

SM Prime Holdings SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPH) is a Filipino integrated property developer and a public subsidiary of SM Investments Corporation. It was incorporated on January 6, 1994, to develop, conduct, operate and maintain the SM commercial shopping cen ...

, the country's largest mall developer. It is the 13th

SM Supermall SM Supermalls, also simply known as SM, owned by SM Prime, is a chain of shopping malls in the Philippines that as of November 18, 2022 has 82 malls located across the country and 20 more scheduled to be opened for an eventual total of 102 mal ...

and 47th SM Prime mall in the Philippines. It is the 2nd SM Supermall to be called "Premier" after SM Lanang Premier. The shopping center is situated near its rival mall Market! Market!, owned by Ayala Malls, a real estate subsidiary of

Ayala Land Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) is a real estate firm based in the Philippines. It is a subsidiary of Ayala Corporation. It began as a division of Ayala Corporation until it was spun off and incorporated in 1988. It became publicly listed in the Phi ...

, and affiliate of

Ayala Corporation Ayala Corporation (Spanish: ''Corporación Ayala'', formerly ''Ayala y Compañía'' (Ayala & Company)) is the publicly listed holding company for the diversified interests of the Ayala Group. Founded in the Philippines by Domingo Róxas and A ...

. It is designed by EDGE Interior Designers and

Arquitectonica Arquitectonica is an international architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and urban planning design firm headquartered in Miami, Florida’s Coconut Grove neighborhood. The firm also has offices in ten other cities throughout ...

Etymology

The name of SM Aura Premier derived from the two elements

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

(which has the chemical symbol Au) and

radium Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rat ...

. According to SM Prime Holdings, Inc., the name defines “luxury and elegance that emanates from within.”

History

The mall had its inaugural blessing on May 16, 2013; a day before the grand opening. Numerous celebrities, government officials including Senator

Alan Peter Cayetano Alan Peter Schramm Cayetano ( Tagalog pronunciation: ajɛˈtano born October 28, 1970) is a Filipino politician, lawyer, and diplomat serving as a Senator since 2022 and previously from 2007 to 2017. He was the Senate Minority Leader from 20 ...

Taguig City Taguig (), officially the City of Taguig ( fil, Lungsod ng Taguig), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Metro Manila, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 886,722 people. Located in the northwestern shores of ...

Mayor

Lani Cayetano Maria Laarni "Lani" Lopez Cayetano (born Maria Laarni Clariño Lopez; December 11, 1981) is a Filipina politician who is the current Mayor of Taguig from 2010 to 2019 and again since 2022. She previously served as the Representative of the 1st ...

, company officials, and VIP guests attended the blessing, including SM Prime's

Henry Sy Henry Tan Chi Sieng Sy Sr. (; ; October 15, 1924 – January 19, 2019) was a Filipino businessman and investor. Born in Fujian, he moved with his family to the Philippines at age 12. While his family returned to China, he stayed behind and f ...

and Hans Sy, and Hollywood celebrity

Sarah Jessica Parker Sarah Jessica Parker (born March 25, 1965) is an American actress and television producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...

. Parker cut the ribbon for The SM Store, and was the newest endorser for their "Love to Shop" campaign.

Mall features

The development includes the Skypark, a multi-level

green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and draina ...

. It has al fresco bars & restaurants, sculptures and botanical gardens, a 1,000-seat performance hall called

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

Hall and the 250-seat Chapel of San Pedro Calungsod. Designed by Miami-based architectural firm

, the structure will be a basic “dumbbell” arrangement determined by the narrow site, with the main entry at the north corner, and the office tower located at the southern end. The main vehicular drop-off is provided on the western side, with taxi stations on the first basement, accessed from the lower, eastern road. The high-end mall consists high-end and international fashion brands such as

Stuart Weitzman Stuart A. Weitzman (born 1941) is an American shoe designer, entrepreneur, philatelist, and founder of the shoe company Stuart Weitzman. Weitzman has designed footwear for Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. Career In the late 1950s, Weitzman's father, ...

, Joseph (UK),

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, an ...

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are c ...

, Uniqlo,

Topman Topman is a UK-based multinational men's fashion retail brand founded by Burton Group (later renamed Arcadia Group) in 1978. Along with its women's clothing counterpart Topshop and the rest of Arcadia Group, Topman went into administration i ...

, and

Topshop TOPSHOP (originally Top Shop) is a British fashion brand for women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It was part of the Arcadia Group, controlled by Sir Philip Green, but went into administration in late 2020 before being purchased by ASOS o ...

. Other tenants include

Crate & Barrel Euromarket Designs Inc., doing business as Crate & Barrel (stylized as Crate&Barrel), is an international furniture and home décor retail store headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois. They employ 8200 employees across over 100 stores in the Uni ...

, Ramen Nagi, Todd English Food Hall Manila (now The Food Hall), and

Fitness First Fitness First is an international fitness centre brand founded in 1993 in the United Kingdom. The company owned and operated its clubs around the world until financial pressures saw parts of the company sold off to various owners in different re ...

Platinum. It also features an

SMX Convention Center The SMX Convention Center Manila is a convention center located in Pasay, Philippines. It is the largest private venue in the Philippines for trade events, industry conventions, corporate functions, and international exhibitions. The buildi ...

at the third and fourth floors.

SM Cinema

SM Aura Premier offers a total of five state of the art cinemas with 2 regular cinemas equipped with

Dolby Atmos Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horizontal, nor verti ...

sound system, 2 Director's Club Cinemas, and an

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme ...

theater at the fourth floor.

Director's Club

SM Aura Premier offers 2 Director's Club Cinemas with in-butler service. It is the second Director's Club Cinema branch after

SM Mall of Asia SM Mall of Asia, also abbreviated as SM MoA, or simply Mall of Asia or MoA, is a large shopping mall in the Philippines, located at Bay City, Pasay, Philippines, within the SM Central Business Park, a reclaimed area within Manila Bay, and the ...

IMAX

SM Aura Premier offers an IMAX theater and it is the seventh IMAX theater in the country. In January 2022, the IMAX theater temporarily operated as a "Large Screen Format" (with films shown in non-IMAX DMR releases) due to undisclosed reasons. The IMAX theater resumed regular operations with IMAX DMR releases on May 4, 2022, along with the release of '' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness''.

Samsung Hall

Samsung Hall, located at the 6th level of SM Aura Premier, is a 1,000-seat performance theater that has been graced by multiple international acts such as

Sungha Jung Sungha Jung ( ko, 정성하; born 2 September 1996) is a South Korean musician who specializes in acoustic fingerstyle guitar. Jung creates acoustic covers and arrangements, typically by ear and/or by watching videos, and composes original ...

, Mayday Parade,

Charli XCX Charlotte Emma Aitchison (born 2 August 1992), known professionally as Charli XCX, is an English singer and songwriter. Born in Cambridge and raised in Start Hill, Essex, she began posting songs on Myspace in 2008, which led to her discovery ...

Metric Metric or metrical may refer to: * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics In mathe ...

Before You Exit Before You Exit is an American pop rock band originally from Orlando, Florida, now based in Los Angeles, California. The band consists of brothers Connor, Riley, and Toby McDonough. In August 2009, they self-released their debut EP, ''A Sh ...

Oh Wonder Oh Wonder are an English, London-based alt-pop duo consisting of Anthony Vander West (né West) and Josephine Vander West (née Vander Gucht). Since releasing their debut album, they have seen international success with their alt-pop singles. O ...

, Why Don’t We, and

iKon iKon (), stylized as iKON, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2015 by YG Entertainment, consisting of six members: Jay, Song, Bobby, DK, Ju-ne and Chan. Originally a seven-piece band, leader B.I departed from the group in June 2019. Ini ...

SM Aura Office Tower

The mall is connected to a 29-story office tower which has an area of . The SM Aura Office Tower is built according to international green standards, with efficient use of energy and sustainable operation features. The Office Tower is also home to one of the largest serviced offices in the Philippines, with 400 seats in a office space. As part of Bonifacio Civic Center, the tower also houses several government offices such as

Social Security System Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG Fund (Home Development Mutual Fund), Philippine Postal Corporation, and

City Government. The Aura Tower also houses corporate offices such as

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery ( Uber Eats and Postmates), pa ...

, Lixil Philippines,

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

, Regent Foods Corp., and Ezaki Glico International.

Awards and recognition

SM Aura Premier is also the first and sole mall to be certified Gold under

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, constructio ...

(LEED) for its green features in the retail sector in the Philippines. The LEED Certification is an internationally recognized standard awarded to institutions that follow the strict regulations governing green architecture and construction. It is a citation awarded to a distinct few by the US Green Building Council.

Controversies

There is a legal battle between the Bases Conversion Development Authority and the SM Aura Premier. The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), in a statement, refuted the claim of SM Prime Holdings Inc. that the controversial SM Aura mall in Taguig City was legally built based on a deed of conveyance (DOC) between the local government and BCDA. During his term, former Taguig Mayor

Sigfrido Tiñga Sigfrido "Freddie" Rodriguez Tiñga (born April 16, 1965) is a Filipino politician and businessman who is currently the founder and president of Global Electric Transport since 2014. He previously served as the representative from Legislative ...

initially went into discussions with the Ayala Group on the use of land. However, the discussions on land use was carried over to the term of his successor, Lani Cayetano.

References

External links

* {{Metro Manila malls Shopping malls in Taguig Bonifacio Global City

Makati Makati ( ), officially the City of Makati ( fil, Lungsod ng Makati), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. Makati is the financial center of the Philippines; it has the highest concentration ...

Shopping malls established in 2013