Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Xavier University puts up retail center

Posted on June 29, 2011 09:22:16 PM

CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Xavier University, a Jesuit-run institution in Mindanao, has partnered with Pryce Corp. to erect a shopping mall inside the campus that will feature students’ business experiments.

The retail center, once completed by September, will feature 13 leasable stalls where students with the best business ideas will be allowed to try out their plans under an incubation setup.

Accepted applicants would get seed capital, consultancy services, business linkages, technology development, and marketing assistance, among other privileges.

Details on lease rates to be collected from student entrepreneurs have yet to be finalized.

The student mall will be accessible to the general public.

Based on the designs of HS Busgano Architect Studio, the leasable spaces will be primarily housed on the first floor of the structure. The mezzanine will meanwhile house a business center, which would be equipped with computers and telephone and Internet connections. A training/conference room would also be located in the mezzanine.

Some of the stalls will have window displays with one reserved for College of Agriculture students who have been selling their commodities at the school’s dry pond. There will be three collapsible modules measuring four square meters that come on top of the stalls.

JCL Construction, Inc. is putting up the structure between the College of Agriculture building and Science Center.

As such, the structure would double as the school’s newest portal, decongesting its two pedestrian entrances.

Xavier University has produced some of the city’s most successful entrepreneurs. Many small and medium enterprises in the city, such as Butcher’s Best BBQ and, most recently, Malunggay Pastel started out as student projects.

Xavier University was founded in 1933, soon after, it became Ateneo de Cagayan. Upon becoming Mindanao’s first university, it was renamed ‘Xavier’ after the Jesuit saint. -- Al Gerard G. dela Cruz

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