Gaisano Mall of Cebu

The mall traces its roots to the White Gold Department Store, established in 1933 by Modesta Singson-Gaisano and moved in 1946 along what is now known as Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City.{{ cite news |last=Rabacal |first=Manny |date=June 14, 2018 |title=Rabacal: White Gold Club |url=https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1748023/superbalita-cebu/opinyon/rabacal-white-gold-club |language=Cebuano |work=SunStar Cebu |accessdate=December 4, 2022 }} After the matriarch's death in 1981, the family's five sons (David, Stephen, Henry, Victor and John) decided to go their separate ways, all establishing separate retail chains themselves. David, the eldest son, kept control of White Gold and established DSG Sons Group, Inc. which opened malls in Mindanao under the Gaisano Malls (GMall) brand.{{cite journal|title=Mall Magnates|journal=Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism|date=2002|volume=III|issue=3|url=http://pcij.org/imag/SpecialReport/mallmagnates2.html|accessdate=9 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314204925/http://pcij.org/imag/SpecialReport/mallmagnates2.html|archive-date=14 March 2016|url-status=dead}} In May 18, 1994, WGI Gaisano Inc. (now known as DSG Sons Group, Inc.) was formed by merging two companies (White Gold Inc. and Gaisano Inc.) as a strategy to expand the company nationwide.{{Cite news |date=November 2, 1996 |title=WGI Gaisano to conduct IPO soon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5MVAAAAIBAJ&dq=gaisano&pg=PA11&article_id=6272,213863 |work=Manila Standard, via Google Books}}

In 1974, their location in Juan Luna St. was engulfed in flames and permanently closed for a few years. Later in 1979, White Gold relocated and reopened in B. Benedicto St. cor. General Maxilom Ave. and G. Gaisano St. in Barangay Tejero, Cebu City. In 1989, a fire incident happened but they were able to resume their business operations a few months later. Another fire incident in 1997 caused it to permanently close and abandon its location.{{ cite news |last=Avila |first=Bobit S. |date=January 9, 2018 |title=Debunking an old urban legend |url=https://www.philstar.com/the-freeman/opinion/2018/01/09/1775991/debunking-old-urban-legend |work=The Freeman |accessdate=December 4, 2022 |quote=Then there was the fire that hit White Gold in the North Reclamation Area years ago }}{{ cite news |last=Apalisok |first=Malou Guanzon |date=January 8, 2018 |title=The elephant in the room |url=https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/159885/the-elephant-in-the-room |work=Cebu Daily News |accessdate=December 4, 2022 |quote=White Gold House was later moved to the North Reclamation area but the department store also got burned. }} In the same year, they relocated and reopened to a nearby location in A. Soriano St. in Cebu North Reclamation Area and relaunched as White Gold Club. It operated until 2018, when a redevelopment plan costing ₱1 billion was launched, and White Gold Club officially ceased operations on June 30, 2018. In December 10, 2022, ten-days later from the opening of GMall of Cebu, the old ruins of the White Gold Department Store in Barangay Tejero collapsed around 4:20 pm, there were no causualties reported. {{Cite news |last=Sitchon |first=John |date=December 10, 2022 |title=Old White Gold ruins in Cebu City collapse |url=https://www.rappler.com/philippines/visayas/old-white-gold-ruins-cebu-city-collapse/ |work=Rappler}}

The redevelopment plan involved turning the old White Gold Club into a full-service shopping mall which would bring the GMall brand to Cebu, the first GMall brand outside Mindanao. The redevelopment plan, which happened immediately after White Gold's closure in 2018, was projected to cost {{Philippine peso}}1 billion and was supposed to take two years, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it took another two years to complete. The group already had plans of bringing the Gaisano Mall brand in Cebu in the late 1990s, which would have been constructed along Natalio Bacalso Avenue beside the Cebu Institute of Technology, before abandoning the project because of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The mall officially opened on December 1, 2022, with its two anchor stores: GMarket (a supermarket), and GStore (a department store).

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{official website|https://www.gaisanomalls.com/}}
• {{Facebook|gaisano.mall.cebu}}

Category:Shopping malls in Cebu City

Category:Shopping malls established in 2022

Category:2022 establishments in the Philippines