Centro Plaza Internacional
The growing popularity of American-style shopping centers has resulted in the presence of two malls in the middle & upper class districts of Los Jardines and Gurabo in Santiago: “Centro Plaza Internacional”, which has a variety of ladies apparel boutiques, men’s clothing stores, a Starbucks-style local café & book stores, DVD and videogame rental shop, a food court serving American, Dominican and Chinese cuisines, cell phone shops, a wine bar, various local banks (with ATMs linked to the U.S. banking system – easing tourist access to their U.S. and other overseas accounts) and a multi-plex movie theater; and “Bella Terra Mall” (both located at Av. Juan Pablo Duarte).
Unlike the “Centro Plaza” mall, “Bella Terra” originally started off as a multi-level office park, before various retailers started setting shop there. Along with women’s apparel boutiques, beauty parlors and other small stores similar to those at other malls, there’s a “Tony Roma’s” ribs and steak restaurant, a multi-plex movie theater, and a lounge (Levels).
On the other side of Santiago is a working class district known as “Las Colinas” (The Hills), which these days has its own multi-level indoor shopping center (Colinas Mall). Unlike the first two shopping centers, this one has a large number of small retailers that sell cheaply-made Chinese goods (some coming right off of shipping containers from China), as well as a supermarket, and its own movie theater.