ULI Chicago’s Under 35 members met in February for their bi-annual Small Group Discussion Series. The three-part speaker series featured conversation’s about the State of the US Mall, the Tribune Tower Redevelopment, and Prop Tech. These thought provoking sessions allowed YLs to consider the newest trends in development, such as the utilization of technology across the industry, and the direction that retail and housing is moving. Leaders from Brookfield Properties, Golub & Company, and Mobile Doorman presented discussion based insights to allow ULI Chicago’s Young Leaders a beneficial learning experience.

Below are summaries of each session.

Session 1 | State of the US Mall: Land Use

To kick off the new decade, this year’s series began with Ben Freeman, Vice President of Development and Head of the East Region and Brian Whaley, Development Manager, Brookfield Properties who discussed the current state of the US mall.

Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) is the largest alternative asset manager in the world, with $365B of total assets under management, of which real estate represents $191B (Brookfield Properties, 52.3% of total portfolio). The company manages 170 retail properties across 43 states with 147MM s.f. in total gross leasable area. To put that in context – 64% of the US population is within an hour drive of a Brookfield Properties shopping center.

Needless to say, retail, especially large malls, hasn’t been receiving the best press recently. Through major bankruptcies, mall/store closures, “show-rooming” and more, many investors have been deterred from the sector. However, BAM still believes you can succeed at mall investing… if you do it right. In order to do that, one must understand the underlying trends of the industry:

• Digital customer acquisition costs are the new rent – It’s not a coincidence your favorite shoes are always advertised on Instagram and the first search result on Google. Companies pay for those features, which in-turn desensitizes the customer. As a result, this can make a physical presence attractive, but it begs the question of how to measure sales, explaining…
• The Halo Effect – Physical stores can drive a “halo effect” of brand awareness and consumer engagement. How do you value a customer who uses your store as a showroom, but purchases the item online for ease of shipping? Does the physical or online store get credit? This challenges retailers, who traditionally scrutinize physical store sales, to value brick-and-mortar differently.
• Subsidize the Retail (“Live-Work-Play”) – As much as possible, BAM looks to create live-work-play communities, not just to have complimentary uses (the main benefit of live-work-play), but also to subsidize retail income concentration. However, at least in BAM’s portfolio, that’s not as easy as it seems due to anchors owning their own land and zoning laws.

Ultimately, BAM has been looking to transition from the shopping malls of yesterday (shopping centers as a shopping destination) to the shopping malls of tomorrow (where the shopping center is the hub of daily life).

See Session 1 Photos

Session 2 | The Tribune Tower Redevelopment

Lee Golub, Managing Principal,  Golub & Company, hosted the Young Leaders at the Tribune Tower Residences for the second session. While having an unobstructed view of the live project under redevelopment, Lee shared the history of the building and the origination of redevelopment idea which led to the joint effort by Golub and CIM in 2016 to acquire and plan the redevelopment of the buildings into luxury residences.

By providing a background of Golub and its history and practices, Lee walked the Young Leaders through the process of Tribune Tower redevelopment project since the beginning; idea, design development phase, regulation, and construction requirement that they have faced along with many other existing problems that they need to address before opening the project to its future residents in 2021. The major notes to make regarding the Tribune Tower redevelopment is its location, timing, and the natural sophistication inherited with repositioning of historical buildings particularly when they are registered as City Landmarks. Lee shed light on many of these aspects and added a new chapter to Chicago Real Estate history book.

See Session 2 Photos

Session 3 | Mobile Doorman: Technology as an Amenity

Living in Silicon Valley in 2011, Bob Matteson, Founder & Executive Chairman, Mobile Doorman, knew that whatever he needed to do, “there’s an app for that.” From managing his bank account to hailing a ride, Bob had the tools he needed at the convenience of a pocket-sized touchscreen. Why, then, was his building manager still using post-it notes on his mailbox to tell him a package had arrived, and slipping paper under his door to spread building-wide information? Surely there was a better way to serve the residents and save the property manager money. This was the conception of Mobile Doorman.

Mobile Doorman hosted the Young Leaders for the final session of the winter Small Group Discussion Series. In their cozy loft office, Mobile Doorman’s Will Clanfield, Director of Marketing, and Debjit Das, Chief Product & Marketing Officer, shared how this “app-of-apps” went from a clever idea to a differentiator in the multi-family housing amenity arms race. Now in more than 1,000 communities in over 40 states, and serving more than half a million residents, Mobile Doorman is an app that is providing a higher quality of life for residents, and a data collection tool that helps property managers tailor their communities to attract and retain residents.

Focusing on the experience of residents first is the primary objective of Mobile Doorman. With that operating successfully, the company is broadening to address the needs of property managers. Through streamlined communication systems, Mobile Doorman provides its property managers and owner/operators with cost savings and helps them to spend less time on the day-to-day chores- like notifying residents when a package arrives, or issuing parking passes- to spend more time focusing on building community. Data collected from the app can provide a glimpse into what amenities and events are successful in each unique community and equip property managers with data to increase rents and decrease turn-over. What’s next for Mobile Doorman? The company plans to use the data mined from the app to inform decision-making through business intelligence services.

See Session 3 Photos

Thank you to our contributors Charles Houser, BMO Harris Bank; Edd Hamzanlui, and Valerie Berstene, SmithGroup.

The ULI Chicago Small Group Discussion Series is designed to provide ULI Chicago Under 35 Members with intimate opportunities to learn from the some of the top individuals and firms in the Chicago CRE scene. Interested in attending? Stay tuned for more Small Group Discussion Series events coming in Spring 2020.