First encounter: J Centre Mall

He built his wealth on exporting Cebu mangoes worldwide. Now, Justin Uy is venturing in a multibillion-peso mixed-use development that will feature a mall, hotel, call center office and apartelles.

His real-estate firm, Everjust Realty Development Corp. (Everjust), will embark on a five-year project called the J Centre on A.S. Fortuna Street in Mandaue City. Its first feature called the J Mall will open in September. (text) (photo)

After mother and my sisters fetched me at school one night, I suggested to drop by the massive eye-catching structure that is the J Centre, located at AS Fortuna. This place had been constructing since before the dawn of my college years, and after the many agreements had died between me and my friends to see what’s up with it, I finally get to enter.

The Parking Space. Mom was driving, so I got to check out one of the most crucial things I look for in, well, almost any place: the parking lot. Aside from the open parking space at the facade, they have a basement parking that was clearly an improvement of all other basement parking lots: the under ground was not excavated which is why the entrance is not steep. The ground is flat — car is stress-free. Their basement parking lot is well lit, ventilated, and spacious. They have sensors like that of SM where it turns green when the space is occupied. In the middle of the parking lot is an entrance to the mall like that of Ayala’s The Terraces.

JC and Parkmall. According to the owner, the mall is currently 70% occupied. In my opinion, J Centre’s inside is a lot better than Parkmall. But Parkmall’s beautiful outside has its own bragging rights, so yeah, I really shouldn’t compare them.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try the mega entrance (where you feel like majesty when you walk up the stairs). Anyhow, I didn’t notice that they have a department store or something. But when we went to Ace Hardware to buy a soldering iron, the lady asked for an SM Advantage Card.

Le Game Zone-esque. There are a lot of cool stores inside, but on the third or uppermost floor (you are free to say that I am not really a keen observer), there is somewhat like a Game Zone called Xcite Republic, and Mom got us a gamer’s card (haha) where we would just reload it to continue playing. Availing a card costs Php100. Tell me if you’re going because we’ll use my card. I still have to get that cute, hard-to-get Pikachu stuff toy.

I was not able to really work my way every corner, but the place is sure very clean, considering its new. Some stores still even smell of rugby and other stuff that I had no choice but to leave.

Visiting J Centre was worth the night’s traffic. It’s a good place. Also, J Centre is just the beginning.. because once everything’s set, the happy ending will look like this:

A hotel and a business park at the back, if my sources are correct.