The real estate development firm Gicsa will open three new shopping centers over the next three months under the concept known as “malltertainment.”

The company first announced the “entertainment mall” category in 2016, explaining that the concept would integrate entertainment venues, a range of shops and department stores, co-working spaces and public areas in shopping centers with an average size of 185,000 square meters.

On September 28, Isla Mérida in the Yucatán capital will be the first malltertainment shopping center to open, followed by Explanada Puebla on October 18 and Paseo Querétaro in November.

The three malls, Gicsa’s first developments in the category, will together cost around 6 billion pesos (US $316 million) to build.

The Isla Mérida project includes entertainment areas such as movie theaters and a children’s center as well as a lagoon with canals, green areas, gardens, a variety of restaurants, a residential area and a 140-room hotel, according to Gicsa’s website.

Isidro Attie, the company’s director for the malltertainment concept, said in 2016 that Explanada Puebla “will have a 33-ride midway, a bowling alley, a 5,000-seat entertainment center, a hot-air balloon, medical facilities, a technical university, a preschool and daycare center, a hotel with more than 150 rooms, a co-working and networking space for entrepreneurs and open-air exercise areas.”

Paseo Querétaro will include department stores, clothing and shoe stores, service stores, movie theaters, gyms, a children’s entertainment area, as well as a vast selection of restaurants at a location adjacent to the city’s old airport.

Company CEO Abraham Cababie Daniel told a press conference yesterday that Gicsa expects to open another nine or 10 shopping centers in the category by 2020, with the cities of Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí, Pachuca and Culiacán among the planned locations.

Existing Gicsa shopping centers will be partially or totally converted to meet the malltertainment requirements, he said, adding that most of the mega-developments will include hotels.

“We hope that the malltertainment shopping centers become tourist destinations in themselves, in addition to being the epicenter of each city,” explained Attie.

Source: El Economista (sp)