SM Mall of Asia


SM Mall of Asia, also abbreviated as SM MoA, or simply Mall of Asia or MoA,, is a shopping mall in Bay City, Pasay, Philippines. It is located within the SM Central Business Park, a reclaimed area along Manila Bay, at the southern end of EDSA. The mall is owned and developed by SM Prime. Mall of Asia is the largest shopping mall in the Philippines, the second-largest in Southeast Asia after IOI City Mall in Malaysia, and the sixth-largest in the world. It currently occupies of land area and a gross floor area of approximately, and offers of floor area space for conventions and social functions.
Following the mall's opening in 2006, it caused several smaller shopping malls nearby to close, such as the Pearl Plaza and the Uniwide Coastal Mall, both located in nearby Barangay Tambo, Parañaque. However, this is changing with the rise of newer malls and similar structures such as the Ayala Malls Manila Bay and WMall Macapagal.

Construction

Plans for SM Mall of Asia began in 1995, with construction originally slated to begin in January 1996; it was marketed to become the largest shopping mall in the world upon completion.
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, while the sixth building is being occupied by TeleTech Holdings, Inc. as their flagship site in the country.
The SM Mall of Asia's design team includes Arquitectonica as the project's design architect and Architect Robert Carag Ong, Architect of Record, and GHT Services as the complex's project managers. SM tapped two separate construction firms for the construction of the mall: Hilmarc's Construction Corp. for the South Parking Building, Main Mall, and Entertainment Mall; and Monolith Construction Development Corp. for the North Parking Building. 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. Due to these circumstances, SM Prime decided to move the opening date to March 3, 2006.
On February 27, 2006, the 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, 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 at the San Miguel Coca-Cola IMAX Theater. The movie was shown three days after Philippine triathlete Leo Oracion reached the summit of Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain.

Layout

The Mall of Asia consists of four buildings interconnected by walkways and elevated pathways: the Main Mall, the Entertainment Mall, and the North and South Wing Parking Buildings.
The Main Mall includes numerous shopping and dining establishments and the food court. The Entertainment Mall is a two-story complex, most of which is open-air, and also features some shopping and dining businesses. The Entertainment Mall also hosts the Music Hall, an events hall facing Manila Bay. As of late 2021, majority of the area has been renovated with addition of air-conditioning. Due to the mall's size, all buildings have concierge desks, assisting local information within the area.
The mall's 5,000 parking spaces are divided across two, six-story parking buildings conveniently designated the North and South Parking Buildings, which have been covered with a solar rooftop. The South Parking Building houses the mall's official The SM Store, while the mall's supermarket, the SM Hypermarket, is located at the North Parking Building. Since 2016, these parking buildings are equipped with elevators and escalators, which allow fast access to parking levels.
Since its opening in 2006, visitors to the mall have been welcomed by large steel framed globe on a roundabout at the southern tip of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, known as the MoA Globe. In 2009, the globe was turned into Globamaze, an LED display.

Features

The mall includes branches of all of the standard anchor stores found in most of the SM Supermalls. The first-ever branch of Taste Asia, one of the SM Supermalls' food court brands, is located right outside the mall's supermarket, the sprawling SM Hypermarket. The first-ever branch of the Disney Store in Southeast Asia opened in September 2024 at the complex's North Main Mall.
The mall's open-air Music Hall directly facing Manila Bay has also held numerous events, contests, and concerts since the mall's opening in 2006.
The mall also provides office space. Dell International Services, a subsidiary of Dell, Inc. once occupied a area at the second floor of the North Parking Building of the mall. Eventually, in 2015, Teleperformance took over that space until 2019, as the company moved its operations to the MoA Annex Building. Currently, the site has been replaced by the mall anchor Cyberzone for IT-related shops, one of the biggest Cyberzones in the country since the opening of SM North EDSA.

MoA Food Hall

Opened on February 12, 2020, the new Food Hall is located in the 3rd Level, across SM Skating Rink at the main mall. Replacing the former SM Food Court at the second floor, it features budget to upscale dining choices.

SM Game Park

A replacement of the SM Bowling Center at the ground level of the North Entertainment Mall, the flagship branch of SM Game Park is located on a space at the 3rd Level of the South Entertainment Mall. It was opened in November 2023, after delays. It features bowling, billiards, basketball, archery, a game room, a mini-arcade, KTV, and a sports bar.

SM Skating Rink

The mall features the Philippines' first Olympic-sized ice skating rink on the third level of the mall's main building. It covers an area of and has a spectators area which can seat up to 200 people and accommodate up to 300 people.
An older ice skating rink was one of the main features of the SM Mall of Asia at the time of its inauguration in 2006, which was situated at the ground level of the mall's main building. Its opening followed the closure of the old skating rink at the SM Megamall which was built in 1992. In 2015, the skating rink made a comeback and eventually opened at the SM Megamall, and during the mall's renovation works, the skating rink was temporarily moved from 2015–2017 to the open area lot between the SMX Convention Center Manila and the MOA Arena, which is currently occupied by MOA Square. The current skating rink, located at the 3rd floor, was opened in 2017.
Several ice skating competitions have been held at the mall's ice skating rink such as the Skate Asia 2007, the first time an international competition at that scale was held in the Philippines. The ice hockey competition of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games was also held at the skating rink.

MOA Sky

The MOA Sky refers to the shopping mall's rooftop amenities above the Main Mall and Entertainment Mall. Originally known as the Sky Garden, it first opened in September 2023. On February 25, 2025, it was re-inaugurated as the MOA Sky with new facilities including the MOA Football Pitch, MOA Paw Park, MOA Sanctuary, and MOA Sky Amphitheater. During the inauguration, an intra-squad exhibition game between players of the Philippines women's national football team took place.
The MOA Football Pitch is a FIFA-grade artificial field with bleachers on the west and east side with a total of 1,800 seats. The MOA Paw Park is a dedicated area designed as a haven for dogs, featuring play zones and venue for pet parties. The MOA Sanctuary features a huge rosary, indoor glass structure, and secluded pocket gardens as places of prayer and meditation. The MOA Sky Amphitheater serves as an open-air performance venue. Also included are two plazas, Zodiac sculptures by Filipino-American visual artist Jefrë, playgrounds, al fresco dining, a grand staircase, viewing decks, and a solar photovoltaic rooftop.

SM Cinema

The mall features a total of 13 cinemas with 8 regular cinemas, three Director's Club Cinemas, one Event Cinema, one ScreenX Cinema, and one IMAX Theater. It originally featured a total of 10 cinemas, with six regular cinemas, Director's Club Cinema for intimate screenings, Premier Cinema, CenterStage, and an IMAX theater.

IMAX

One of the mall's main attractions is the first ever and the largest IMAX theater in the Philippines. Originally with the naming rights of San Miguel-Coca-Cola, IMAX Theatre is one of the world's biggest IMAX screens in 3D including 2D screenings. It was originally a traditional film projector that uses its 15/70 mm film format, IMAX GT. The IMAX Theater was closed on October 11, 2013, for digital conversion, and re-opened on October 30, 2013, along with the release of Thor: The Dark World. On November 6, 2014, the old traditional 70mm IMAX projector was used for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. In July 2017, the main lobby was temporarily closed for renovation, and its lobby was temporarily moved at the second floor in front of Cinemas 7 and 8, the main lobby re-opened on December 11, 2018, upon the launch of Event Cinema and the Asian premiere screening of Aquaman where its star Jason Momoa has arrived in the country; however, its temporary lobby is closed being used as offices for cinema personnel and as an emergency fire exit. On August 18, 2019, the IMAX Theater was closed for renovation and re-opened on October 29, 2019, with updated interiors and high-end spectator seats with comfortable Paragon 918 chairs from world-class spectator seats manufacturer Ferco Seating. The IMAX re-opened on May 4, 2022, along with the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
As part of SM Cinema's expanded partnership with IMAX Corporation, which will bring IMAX with Laser upgrades to existing IMAX locations, the IMAX was closed in September 2024 for an IMAX with Laser upgrade and reopened on November 20, 2024, along with the release of Wicked and equipped with a 12-channel sound system.