Cagayan de Oro — In this regional economic and business hub of less than a million people, there has been a frantic rise of consumer malls, from east to west, north to south, in downtown and uptown, the vertical build-up going gaga in this emerging city of the South.
And as it appears, the rise of malls does not have the intention of stopping, nor a halt either, in the rush for development, in this consumer-led economy that is Cagayan de Oro, a Metro in the making by year 2025.
The latest supermall to open half-way through the Christmas season is the half-moon shaped Gaisano City Mall in Uptown Cagayan de Oro, strategically posted at the very entrant of the city’s west side, closing in on the consumer market from Bukidnon areas, an open threat to the already well-entrenched SM City Mall, the first mall ever to rise in Uptown, Cagayan de Oro, built in November 2002.
All of Chinese descents, mall owners Gaisano’s of Cebu, the Sy’s of Manila and Cagayan de Oro’s home-grown propery magnate
See Hong are turning this city — fast and furious — into a Hongkong-like haven of shopping malls, with an added player City Malls owner and Real Property Billionaire, the Villar’s of the popular Gran Europa and Camella Homes, and the soon-to-be-opened Paseo Del Rio Mall, definitely one of the newest and most modern commercial structures to be built beside the iconic Cagayan de Oro River.
We are just talking here about supermalls on the rise, as we have not touched on the numbers of real estate developments and high rise condo units on the rise in many fronts and locations within the city proper.
On top of these developments the city are hosting, there are pressing concerns on how to decongest heavy traffic, address the increasing waste generation, and most importantly, how to provide livelihood and jobs, to the increasing population of the city, seen to grow by leaps and bounds in the next five years or so.
Added to these developments, water-related sustainability issues are causing headaches, foremost of which are the on-going legal war on who will rightfully manage the state-owned Cagayan de Oro water district.
Other pressing issues that need fast-action include pollution, depletion of groundwater, and land-use changes.
Collaboration between various institutions and stakeholders is crucial in dealing with the challenges Cagayan de Oro is facing like the never-ending water issues.
Admittedly, where there are progress and developments, there are always problems that goes with it acting as twins.
And Cagayan de Oro, a metropolitan city
in the making is not an exception to all these human-induced economic and legal headaches.
Be that as it may, let the rising Metro Cagayan de Oro grow by itself naturally — by leaps and bounds.
