One Ayala

Definition

One Ayala is a mixed-use, transit-oriented development of Ayala Land, Inc. at the corner of Ayala Avenue and EDSA in the Ayala Center, Makati City — a single contiguous complex combining an intermodal transport terminal, a five-level retail mall under the Ayala Malls brand, three office towers, an events venue (SPACE at One Ayala), and a planned hotel, built on the 2.8-hectare site of the demolished InterContinental Manila and the former EDSA Carpark. The terminal and mall opened on July 18, 2022, with the direct pedestrian connection to the MRT-3 Ayala station following on December 1, 2022; the terminal is accredited by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board and serves the EDSA busway’s Carousel buses, point-to-point (P2P) buses, city and provincial buses, jeepneys, and UV Express units. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, Ayala Land — One Ayala offices, Top Gear Philippines, BusinessWorld)

The development functions as the southern gateway of the Makati central business district: Ayala Land’s own project literature describes a three-floor, 20,000-square-meter transportation hub serving northbound and southbound buses, AUVs, jeepneys, and a future bus rapid transit line, with direct connection to the MRT and covered walkways toward McKinley Exchange, Glorietta, and the rest of the CBD — the commuter infrastructure the surrounding Ayala Center retail district, documented in this wiki’s Greenbelt and Ayala Malls entries, had long lacked. (Ayala Land — One Ayala offices, BusinessWorld)

Identities

Source	Identifier	URL
Wikipedia	One Ayala	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Ayala
Wikidata	One Ayala (Q115819820)	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115819820
DBpedia	One_Ayala	https://dbpedia.org/page/One_Ayala
ProductOntology	N/A	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A	N/A
MeSH	N/A	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A	N/A
Google Scholar	One Ayala transit-oriented development Makati transport terminal Ayala Land mixed-use Philippines	https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22One+Ayala%22+Makati
ConceptNet	N/A	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A	N/A

Also Known As

Examples and Analogies

A train station with a mall wrapped around it: One Ayala inverts the usual Philippine pattern of a terminal beside a shopping center — the transport hub occupies the lower levels of one contiguous complex, so that transferring between the MRT-3, an EDSA Carousel bus, and a jeepney happens inside an air-conditioned, retail-lined concourse rather than on the street. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, BusinessWorld)
The CBD’s front door: standing where Ayala Avenue meets EDSA — “the first office buildings on Ayala Avenue coming from Edsa,” in the developer’s phrase — the complex works as the arrival hall of Makati’s business district for commuters from the south. (Ayala Land — One Ayala offices)
Transit-oriented development, Philippine edition: the design bundles terminal, mall, offices, and events space on one 2.8-hectare parcel so that fare-box, lease, and ticket revenue cross-subsidize each other — the TOD formula adapted to a private-led Philippine context rather than a state rail agency. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, Ayala Land — One Ayala offices)
Verified development data:
Developer and builder: Ayala Land, Inc.; construction from 2016, undertaken by MDBI Construction Corp., an MDC/Ayala Land subsidiary (Wikipedia — One Ayala)
Opening: transport terminal and mall, July 18, 2022 — the day P2P services on four routes (Antipolo, Katipunan, Fairview, Sta. Rosa) moved in (Wikipedia — One Ayala, Top Gear Philippines)
Bus terminal: opened in partnership with the Department of Transportation in November 2022, serving the EDSA Bus Carousel, P2P buses, and southbound city buses, with the relocated Carousel stop operating from November 19, 2022 (BusinessWorld, Wikipedia — One Ayala)
Rail connection: Level 2 pedestrian access to the MRT-3 Ayala station from December 1, 2022; later links to SM Makati (December 2023) and Glorietta 5 (June 7, 2025), plus the Ayala Footbridge to McKinley Exchange (Wikipedia — One Ayala)
PUV terminal: Lower Ground level with nine gates for jeepneys and UV Express, opened March 20, 2023 (Wikipedia — One Ayala)
Retail and events: five-story mall of 54,700 square meters gross leasable area, 400-plus stores; Robinsons Supermarket branch opened August 3, 2023; SPACE at One Ayala events venue on Level 5, first event April 19, 2024 (Wikipedia — One Ayala)
Offices: East Tower (29 floors), West Tower (21 floors, Microsoft Philippines headquarters since 2022), and South Tower (19 floors, opened 2024), all PEZA-registered (Wikipedia — One Ayala, Ayala Land — One Ayala offices)
Hotel: a 400-room Canopy by Hilton under a deal announced August 2025, slated to open in 2026 (Wikipedia — One Ayala)

Usage Scenarios

1. Commuting and Interchanging

Daily users transfer among modes inside one complex: from the MRT-3 Ayala station through Level 2, down escalators to the EDSA-side bus bays for southbound Carousel and city buses, to the Ayala Avenue side for the P2P lane, or to the Lower Ground gates for jeepneys and UV Express — with an air-conditioned passenger concourse open to the public throughout. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, BusinessWorld, Top Gear Philippines)

2. Provincial and Intercity Travel

Longer-distance riders board intercity buses serving Alabang, the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX), and points south such as Cabuyao, Lipa, Lucena, and Batangas City, with further provincial routes added in later phases — the station’s reach documented route by route in the Wikipedia record. (Wikipedia — One Ayala)

3. Working, Shopping, and Events

Office tenants occupy the three PEZA-registered towers above the terminal; shoppers use the five-level mall anchored by Robinsons Supermarket; and exhibitors use SPACE at One Ayala’s four trade halls and six function rooms — the mixed uses that keep the complex active beyond commuting hours. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, Ayala Land — One Ayala offices)

4. Studying Transit-Oriented Development

Urban planners cite One Ayala as the leading private Philippine case of TOD execution — a private developer financing terminal infrastructure as the anchor of a commercial complex, in partnership with the transport department — a project shortlisted at the 2017 World Architecture Festival and recognized with the 2022 ACI People’s Choice Award and 2023 International Property Awards honors. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, BusinessWorld)

Strategies

Route by level, not by street: the terminal’s working logic is vertical — Carousel and city buses on the EDSA side, P2P on the Ayala Avenue side, jeepneys and UV Express below ground, rail one level up — so navigation questions are level questions. (Wikipedia — One Ayala)
Plan around the phasing: the complex opened in stages (terminal and mall July 2022; Carousel stop November 2022; MRT link December 2022; PUV gates March 2023; Glorietta 5 bridge 2025), so accounts of “what connects at One Ayala” must be dated. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, Top Gear Philippines)
Distinguish it from PITX: One Ayala is an EDSA-CBD interchange serving city, P2P, and PUV traffic with intercity links, not Metro Manila’s southwestern provincial terminal at Parañaque — the two are connected as destinations, not substitutes. (Wikipedia — One Ayala)
Use the developer’s primary record for design intent: Ayala Land’s project pages state the hub’s program — three floors, 20,000 square meters, northbound and southbound buses, AUVs, jeepneys, future BRT, direct MRT connection — the specifications against which the built complex should be read. (Ayala Land — One Ayala offices)

Security and Safety Measures

Regulated terminal operations: the terminal is LTFRB-accredited and was opened with the Department of Transportation as partner — placing bus bay assignments, franchises, and passenger handling under transport regulators rather than mall policy alone. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, BusinessWorld)
Grade-separated pedestrian flows: the direct MRT-3 link, the covered walkways to McKinley Exchange and Glorietta, and the internal escalator circuit keep transferring commuters off the EDSA roadway and Ayala Avenue carriageways — the safety core of the interchange design. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, Ayala Land — One Ayala offices)
Weather-protected interchange: the air-conditioned concourse open to the public gives commuters a sheltered waiting environment across all modes — a heat- and storm-protection measure embedded in the architecture. (BusinessWorld)
Energy-transition provisioning: the Ayala Avenue-side terminal includes an electric-vehicle fast-charging station, anticipating the shift of PUV and P2P fleets to electric drive. (Wikipedia — One Ayala)

Historical Context

The site’s previous life ended when the InterContinental Manila — the Ayala Center’s pioneering hotel — closed on December 31, 2015 after 46 years; Ayala Land assembled its parcel with the adjacent EDSA Carpark and began construction in 2016. (Wikipedia — One Ayala) The project matured into a transit period: by the time the terminal opened on July 18, 2022 — the same day P2P routes moved in — the EDSA Busway and its Carousel service had reorganized radial commuting along the avenue, and One Ayala’s EDSA-side bays became the structured replacement for curbside stops, with the relocated Carousel stop operating from November 19, 2022 and the DOTr partnership formalizing the terminal’s role that month. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, Top Gear Philippines, BusinessWorld)

The complex then filled in around its transport core: the MRT-3 Ayala station connection on December 1, 2022; the nine-gate jeepney and UV Express terminal on March 20, 2023; Robinsons Supermarket’s first Makati branch on August 3, 2023; the direct link to SM Makati in December 2023; SPACE’s first event on April 19, 2024; the South Tower in 2024; and the Glorietta 5 footbridge on June 7, 2025. (Wikipedia — One Ayala) The hotel component completed the plan’s latest revision — the originally intended Seda having been replaced by a 400-room Canopy by Hilton announced in August 2025 for a 2026 opening — leaving the complex, in the developer’s program, the transport hub, offices, retail, and events venue of the Ayala Center’s EDSA edge. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, Ayala Land — One Ayala offices)

Challenges and Controversies

Phasing Friction on the Busway

The terminal’s integration with the EDSA Carousel was iterative rather than instant: the southbound Carousel stop was relocated into the terminal only on November 19, 2022, four months after opening, and the jeepney and UV Express gates followed in March 2023 — a phasing that tested commuters and drew coverage of each step’s launch. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, BusinessWorld)

The Hotel That Changed Brands

The accommodation component shifted from the planned Seda hotel — under construction as late as November 2022, per Ayala Land’s project development head — to the Canopy by Hilton deal announced in August 2025, a rebranding that left the residential-hotel half of the original program restated mid-course. (BusinessWorld, Wikipedia — One Ayala)

Cost and Scale of Private Transit Provision

As a privately built terminal anchoring a commercial complex, One Ayala’s model — public ridership, private capture of retail and office value — is the standing debate in Philippine transit planning: whether CBD terminals should follow this pattern or remain wholly public infrastructure, a policy question the awards juries’ recognition has not settled. (Wikipedia — One Ayala, BusinessWorld)