Gone are the heavy, wood-and-aluminum store windows that were the trademark of the old Shoppesville Arcade at Greenhills Shopping Center. They have been replaced by streamlined glass, which give the mall a look more in keeping with its high-end clientele.

Shoppesville has also completely overhauled its bathrooms and installed high-tech pay lounges on the second floor. The old escalators have been replaced with wider, more modern versions, with the stairs set to be replaced by more escalators soon.

Wider corridors, higher ceilings and more illumination complete the lighter, airier effect.

“We think of it as putting Shoppesville into the 21st century. We have modernized, not just renovated,” according to Lotta Soller, special leading and marketing manager for Ortigas & Co. which owns and manages Greenhills Shopping Center and Shoppesville.

Shoppesville has recently embarked on a major modernization project aimed at cementing its reputation as the metro’s go-to place for fashion.

The modernization is part of the P20-billion redevelopment of the 16-hectare Greenhills Shopping Center aimed at doubling its retail space for rent. From around 100,000 sqm of shopping area, the redevelopment is aimed at increasing floor area and adding shopping mall space to double the existing area.

The modernized Shoppesville started the year by offering customers excellent affordable shopping experience with the three C’s of a perfect shopping destination – cleanliness, comfort, and convenience. It now boasts of higher ceilings, new lighting made more conducive to shopping, wider corridors and escalators, bright and modern flooring, and rest rooms with pay lounges, giving the shopping haven a more elegant look that is at par with high-end malls.

Despite the improvements in the mall’s interiors and facilities, Shoppesville has maintained favorite boutiques that have made the mall a household name.

“We have set Shoppesville to be the fashion zone for Greenhills shoppers. We have stores that sell imported fashion finds which is something that people have come to expect from us. But because they are small outlets, our stores carry inventory in limited quantities – when people buy a shirt or a dress from a Shoppesville store, they can be sure that they have an item that is both fashionable and relatively unique,” Soller said.

Shoppesville has emerged as the home for new Filipino fashion. “We also house what we consider to be some of the most important new fashion players, like Ochie, Apt8, Abiti, So F.A.B., Shoebox and Satin, which are run by enthusiastic young entrepreneurs who know what is trendy, what is classic, and who know what their audience wants,” Soller added.

The complete overhaul of the mall’s popular third floor – home of small boutique entrepreneurs, ‘viajera’ imported fashion from Thailand, Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian locales, and PX goods and cosmetics – took even greater planning, as the stores have been rezoned and rearranged in an easier-to-navigate grid, eliminating the dead ends and creating a more organized flow to the stores.