It will also effect the hundreds of small businesses and shops from nearby streets and communities. Many of these businesses rely on the foot traffic going in and coming out of the market's multiple entrances and exits.
If the SM and Baguio City partnership pushes through and SM goes on to build the multi-level commercial center and the multi-level parking building beside it, what do you think will be the net effect not on just market vendors but on nearby shops like grocery stores, bakeries, etc.?
Remember that SM will be managing and controlling the commercial center and parking building for 50 years. You can bet that the parking building will be designed in such a way that there's an easy transition from the parking building to the commercial center.
Many people seem to have been fed the idea that the proposed public-private partnership is the only way to move forward in redeveloping the market. That's not the case. If you listen to the deliberation by the city council last October, it was pretty clear that there are other options but these weren't studied and explored as deeply.
