Harrison Plaza

{{Infobox shopping mall

| name = Harrison Plaza

| logo = Harrison Plaza logo.png

| image = 04958jfStreets Harrison Plaza SM Century Park Buildings Malate Manilafvf 11.jpg

| image_width =

| caption =

| location = Malate, Manila, Philippines

| coordinates = {{Coord|14|33|45.5|N|120|59|23|E|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| address = Adriatico Street cor. Ocampo Street

| opening_date = {{Start date and age|1976}}

| closing_date = {{Start date and age|2019|12|31}}

| developer =

| manager = Tourist Trade and Travel Corporation (from Martel family)

| owner = City Government of Manila

| architect =

| number_of_stores = More than 200

| number_of_anchors = 4

| floor_area = {{cvt|178,000|sqm}}

| parking = Open carpark

| floors = 2

| website =

| belowstyle =

| footnotes =

}}

Harrison Plaza (HP) was a shopping mall situated along Adriatico Street corner Ocampo Street in the district of Malate in Manila, Philippines. Opened in 1976 and closed at the end of 2019, it was the first modern and major shopping mall located in the area. The shopping mall building has been demolished to give way for a redevelopment of the site into residential building complex with a shopping center called SM City Harrison by SM Prime Holdings.

History

=First opening=

File:SM Harrison Plaza.JPG

The property was built in a former cemetery destroyed during World War II and cleared of graves afterwards. Before the development, the area used to be known as Fort San Antonio Abad in Malate, Manila, Harrison Park, and Ermita Cemetery, respectively.{{cite web |last1=Bueza |first1=Michael |title=FAST FACTS: Harrison Plaza |url=https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/fast-facts/248179-things-to-know-harrison-plaza |website=Rappler |accessdate=30 December 2019 |date=30 December 2019}}{{Cite web |url=https://filipiknow.net/manila-history-and-trivia/ |title=12 Random Facts About Manila That Will Blow Your Mind |website=FilipiKnow.net |date=July 2, 2014}}

Harrison Plaza opened in 1976 and was the first modern shopping mall in the Philippines after the opening of Ali Mall. The Martel family leased the lot where the mall is standing under a contract with the city government of Manila. Despite being built on the site of a former cemetery, very few urban legends involved the place.{{Cite web|url=https://business.inquirer.net/266809/malate-manilas-crown-jewel|title=Malate: 'Manila's crown jewel'|website=INQUIRER.net|date=March 16, 2019|language=en|access-date=2019-07-04}}{{Cite web|url=https://balay.ph/haunted-places-in-metro-manila/|title=The Most Haunted Places in Metro Manila {{!}} Balay.ph|date=2017-11-06|website=Balay PH|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-04}} The retail center was the first air-conditioned shopping mall in the Philippines.{{cite news |last1=De Guzman |first1=Nicai |title=Whatever Happened to Harrison Plaza? |url=https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/harrison-plaza-history-a1729-20190723-lfrm |accessdate=15 September 2019 |work=Esquire |date=24 June 2019}}

=Fire, two-year closure, second opening=

After the mall was razed by a fire,{{cite news |last1=Valenzuela |first1=Nikka |title=Harrison Plaza closes shop after 43 years |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1207903/harrison-plaza-closes-shop-after-43-years |accessdate=3 January 2020 |newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer |date=1 January 2020}} it was shuttered for renovations from 1982 to 1984. When it was reopened to the public in 1984, the mall featured a cinema, amusement rides, a jai alai fronton site (until it was converted to SM Hypermarket in 2010), a fountain, a Catholic chapel, and a hotel in the 1990s. It was anchored by the country's major department store chains like SM Department Store and Rustan's.

=Aftermath=

While new malls were being built by SM, Ayala, Robinsons, and Megaworld, as well as a makeover of Ali Mall,{{When|date=November 2023}} Harrison Plaza changed very little, and the environment around it became "quite unpleasant as well with urban decay, squalor, and disorder".{{Cite web|url=https://www.theurbanroamer.com/harrison-plaza/|title=Of Bygone Days and An Uncertain Future: The Saga Of Harrison Plaza|date=2016-07-24|website=The Urban Roamer|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-04}}

In June 2016, it was reported that SM Prime Holdings was planning to invest {{Philippine peso|39.44 billion|link=yes}} to redevelop the mall and put up business process outsourcing offices and residential towers in the Harrison Plaza complex. The firm is partnering with the city government of Manila, which has an economic interest in the redevelopment project.{{cite news|url=http://business.inquirer.net/211212/sm-eyes-harrison-plaza-redevelopment|title=SM eyes Harrison Plaza redevelopment|last1=Dumlao-Abadilla|first1=Doris|date=20 June 2016|accessdate=24 November 2016|publisher=Philippine Daily Inquirer}}

In April 2018, SM Prime Holdings finalized a deal to buy out the Martel family from its contract with the City of Manila to redevelop and manage Harrison Plaza.{{Cite web|url=https://business.inquirer.net/249900/sm-prime-poised-take-harrison-plaza|title=SM Prime poised to take over Harrison Plaza|last=Dumlao-Abadilla|first=Doris|website=business.inquirer.net|date=April 27, 2018|language=en|access-date=2019-07-04}} Since the shopping center was in need of redevelopment and lagged behind other malls in the metro, SM Prime Holdings plans to build a new shopping center with a residential condominium above it. The Martel family's contract for the mall would expire by 2020 or 2022.

=Closure and sale to SM=

File:Harrison Plaza (Malate, Manila; 01-01-2020).jpg

On November 14, 2019, the Martels gave notice to the mall's tenants that the mall would cease its operations on December 31, 2019, with the family giving them time to clear out the area until January 31, 2020.{{Cite tweet |user=hanahtabios |number=1211210579676786690 |date = 29 December 2019 |title=EXCLUSIVE: The final memo from the Martels ordering all mall tenants to pull out all their items until January 31, 2020. Harrison Plaza ceased operations on December 31, 2019. }}

After the deadline, the property was demolished in October 2021{{cite news |date=6 October 2021 |title=Drone video: Ginibang Harrison Plaza |trans-title=Drone video: Demolished Harrison Plaza |url=https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/multimedia/video/10/06/21/drone-video-ginibang-harrison-plaza |access-date=9 October 2021 |language=tl}} in preparation for the construction of SM City Harrison, a "massive project" of SM Prime Holdings, reportedly a condominium building complex with a shopping mall similar to The Podium.

Tenants

File:Malate District (Aerial View) - with Manila Bay, CCP, BSP, Harrison Plaza and Rizal Football Stadium (Malate, Manila; 2015-06-25).jpg

At its peak, Harrison Plaza housed 180 stores, eateries, service outlets, four movie houses, and a supermarket. It also had a jai alai fronton before the sport was banned by the Philippine government, and the fronton was subsequently replaced by an outlet of SM Hypermarket.

In popular culture

The 2019 film The Mall, The Merrier was largely filmed in and around Harrison Plaza where it was used to portray the fictional Tamol Mall, where mysterious incidents occur.{{cite web|url=https://www.pep.ph/pepalerts/cabinet-files/148382/harrison-plaza-to-close-this-2019-a734-20191225|title=Harrison Plaza, tuluyan nang magsasara sa katapusan ng 2019|trans-title=Harrison Plaza to close this 2019|publisher=Philippine Entertainment Portal|lang=tl|work=PEP.ph}}