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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Centro Pacita

Two blocks away and very visible from our front gate is Centro Pacita. It used to be an empty lot where the carnival people used to set up their rides during the October fiesta. At other times it served as a landing area whenever someone important visits the area in a helicopter. Some guy even used to practice golf there and I was wondering if he's hit someone with his golf balls accidentally.

When cement was poured over the ground, joggers and promenaders took over the place. Occasionally, a group of people would set up stalls for a trade bazaar.

This summer, the whole block was fenced in and printed on the fences were ads/pictures of what they were building: Centro Pacita. Hmmm... it looks like we're going to have a mini-mall near the house. That means noise. Lots of noise.

Lately, with the opening of some stores, you'd hear loud music playing from there. This night, for instance, they had set up a sound system in the middle of the area:
DSC00023 (Small)
The sound system's the one on the right below the bright bluish light ... a bit to the left of the bright yellow light on the extreme right ... it's not that visible in this picture I'm afraid.

Near Centro Pacita, if not part of it, is the building of Reysal Supermarket, which was constructed last year.
DSC00026 (Small)

The supermarket rents out stalls built on the side of the building near Pacita Avenue:
DSC00028 (Small)

I know the supermarket will last. I'm just not sure about the others. A Steak House is opening soon ... I'm wondering if the food's going to be good. Hopefully, pedestrian traffic from the nearby Church will make sure people will go to this place. Hopefully this does not turn out to be another Plaza Pacita - where the Bistro and Ice Cream House closed shop after 3 years and were replaced by small stalls selling stuff like cheap clothes and pirated CDs/DVDs/VCDs.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

hi question lang po, sa tingin mo po bebenta ang coffee shop sa centro pacita? like the one in landayan (breeks ata ung name)

Jing said...

The Coffee shop must have the right look to beckon people to visit, the right ambiance to encourage them to stay and try the menu, priced right to make them think they got their money's worth (if too expensive, some won't think it's worth spending for; if too cheap, then it may actually be detrimental to the shop's image), and have really good coffee and food to make them consider going back to try the rest of the menu and convince others to eat there as well.

The surrounding shops should preferably cater to the same market as the coffee shop. If the surrounding shops end up as tiangges, then I don't think the coffee shop will benefit from the pedestrian traffic.