Mr. Silberfein, 49, is the chief executive of Rouse Properties, a publicly traded real estate investment trust based in New York. The company owns and operates 34 malls in 21 states, or around 24.5 million square feet of retail property.
Previously, Mr. Silberfein was an executive vice president for retail and finance at the Forest City Ratner Companies.
Q. Rouse is based in New York, yet none of its properties are in the New York area now.
A. We continue to look for properties on the East Coast, so I wouldn’t say we wouldn’t be in New York at some point if the right opportunities come along. But I tell you this: The quality of the employees, the pace that people work at, the access to retailers and financial sources is unfettered in New York.
I have a lot of experience in New York, having been with Forest City Ratner for 15 years; so we’re not strangers to urban retail or big-box retail.
Q. Do you have some areas in mind where you might want to expand into?
A. It wouldn’t likely be in Manhattan. Certainly upstate New York. We looked at a couple of different properties, but it has to be the right fit for us.
Q. Where is your biggest presence right now?
A. Our biggest presence, I would say, is California and Michigan. We have five assets in each of those states.
Q. What was the genesis behind the spinoff from G.G.P.?
A. This was a portfolio that was really neglected for seven years. It was a portfolio of middle-market assets in smaller markets. The properties were never going to get the capital and the attention because they were smaller — they didn’t move the needle for G.G.P., which had 200 malls.
What they needed was a lot of attention. They needed a management team that had a plan for each asset mall. I came in to take the company public in January 2012.
Q. How do you define “middle market”?
A. We tend to be the only-game-in-town assets, which means 80 percent of our malls are the only enclosed mall in a submarket or market, sometimes within 100 miles. So we really are the downtowns for these markets.
Q. You expand your portfolio solely through acquisitions, right?
A. Right.
We’re now spending $200 million on improving the assets — that’s capital for both cosmetic as well as strategic, and that’s making a big difference. We have, for example, put Wi-Fi in throughout the portfolio, from end zone to end zone at every mall.
Q. So is business good?
A. We had a great year in 2013. In 2011, the prior year before we owned it, G.G.P. leased 920,000 feet of our portfolio. Our first year of ownership we leased 2.1 million feet, and then 2013 was up 13 percent over 2012. We have made a lot of progress both on the small-shop space as well as the anchor space. And we’ve leased nine out of 12 anchor boxes that we have.
Q. What are your occupancy and rental rates portfoliowide?
A. At the end of the third quarter it was about 94 percent.
The in-line space is in the mid- to upper-$30s per square foot.
Q. And retention rates?
A. When we first went into business we were retaining in the mid-40 percent tenants that were expiring. Now that number is up to the mid-80 percent.
Q. Who are your biggest tenants?
A. We do a lot of business with Dillard’s and Macy’s. Then there’s H&M, Forever 21, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Regal Cinemas, AMC, T. J. Maxx.
On the smaller side, it’s Chico’s, Francesca’s.
Q. Are you concerned about the steady rise in online shopping?
A. Brick and mortar will always be the key part of retailers’ strategy, because it’s the showcase and fulfillment center, where you can return things and try things on and see things.
We’re making the malls more relevant. We want to give people more reasons to come there. We’re adding high-volume restaurants, entertainment tenants and big-box tenants. We’re really transforming the mall into more of an all-around experience.
Q. Do you like to shop?
A. I’m more of a power shopper. I like to do everything in half an hour. I don’t have enough time to actually go into the stores and shop.
via:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/realestate/commercial/andrew-silberfein.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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