By Madelaine B. Miraflor Federal Land, Inc., (FLI) the real estate arm of GT Capital Holdings, has launched its first full mall and is now in a “catch up mode” in terms of its commercial retail space expansion. Yesterday, FLI has officially launched the Met Live, an upscale shopping mall located within the company’s integrated community Metro Park in Bay Area, Pasay City. “This is our first full mall and we will build a lot more. It took us awhile to develop this,” FLI Executive Vice President for Business Management Catherine Ko said during the opening. Later on, she told reporters that FLI is now working on the development of more malls in and outside Metro Manila, starting with the company’s existing partnership with Nomura Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. Together, FLI and Nomura Real Estate will build the Mitsukoshi Mall in Bonifacio Global City. “That will be opened in 2021,” Ko said. “And then here at Met Live, there will be a second phase which we will be working on in the next two years.” FLI is also planning to build a mall in Marikina and in other areas outside Manila. “We will really expand . We are pretty set on the residential already so this is something where we want to catch up,” Ko further said. In terms of branding strategy, she said FLI will not settle on one specific name for all its malls. “Our strategy is to cater to very specific niche of the market where we want to be,” Ko said. "There will be different names for each mall.” Going back to Met Live, which took FLI four years to build, Ko said the mall is already 80 percent occupied and will have a wide selection of retail spaces perfect for dining outlets, coffee shops, a health clinic, bank and other specialty stores. “It’s 50-50 F&B and retail,” Ko said, referring of the mall’s tenant portfolio. “We are really deliberate in choosing tenants,” she added. Located in a 2-hectare lot, Met Live will also have office floors for lease to its corporate clients. During the first nine months of the year, FLI’s lease revenues grew by 22 percent over the same period in 2018, with 92 percent of all rentable spaces leased out. “Its rental revenues are likewise expected to grow, as more leased spaces become operational in the coming quarters,” GT Capital said in a filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday.