A NEW ERA OF URBAN RENEWAL

It is easier to tear old structures down and build a completely new one from the ground up, but SM Prime Holdings wasn't eyeing "easy" when they envisioned SM J Mall.

"The location is very good," says SM Prime Holdings chairman of executive committee Hans Sy. Located in the bustling and dense A.S. Fortuna Street in Barangay Bakilid, the four-level mall strategically located in front of the Toyoko Inn Cebu, a Japanese hotel chain. Mandaue City residents know J Mall used to be J Centre, a neighborhood mall you go to for a quick errand; while it has all the essentials, it's not really for hanging out or unwinding after a long day.

J Centre, owned by Justin Uy, founder of the country's leading dried mango and dried fruits producer Profood International Corporation, gets his experience from his family's condominium, J Tower, beside SM J Mall, as well as JPark Island Resort Waterpark in Mactan. But as Sy shares, "He said to me, 'It's so easy to put up a nice mall, but I never realized it's so hard to run a mall. That's not my line of business.'"

"We're good friends, so I took over," he says. For Sy, the transformation is a chance to give back to the community, staying true to his principle: "I always say, do what is right and give back all our blessings."

His son, Hans "Chico" Sy Jr., president of SM Engineering Design & Development Corp, led the redesign efforts of the 100,000-square-meter property.