Before the malls: The brick-and-mortar roots of the Sy empire

Before the malls: The brick-and-mortar roots of the Sy empire

Long before the late Henry Sy Sr. built the air-conditioned megamalls that reshaped the daily lives of Filipinos, his world was bounded by just 450 square meters of red brick, granite, and tile.Far from the retail, real estate, and banking empire in Metro Manila that made Sy the country’s wealthiest man for over a decade, the physical roots of his business tell a very different story 1,700 kilometers northwest, along a narrow road in Fujian prov…