Kenneth Bernstein and Christopher Conlon
Kenneth Bernstein and Christopher Conlon
President & CEO; Executive Vice President & COO at Acadia Realty Trust
Last year's rank: 37
Prior to the COVID shutdown, Acadia Realty Trust was seeing a phenomenon almost as rare as a pandemic: genuine strength in their retail portfolio.
“Around the back half of 2016, we began to see a lot of retail disruption, and a lot of heritage brands that were either unable or unwilling to evolve,” said Christopher Conlon, executive vice president & chief operating officer at Acadia. “Notwithstanding that, 2019 was a year when we saw increased leasing activity and tenant interest in our portfolio. Things firmed up well for us in 2019.”
These successes included two major outlets opening in buildings Acadia owned in Chicago: the largest Lululemon store in North America, a three-story, 23,000- square-foot store, in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, and replacing an outgoing H&M with a multi-level flagship store for Uniqlo on State Street.
Acadia also acquired a five-building portfolio on Melrose Place in Los Angeles with stores including The Row, Chloe and Oscar de la Renta, and a similar-sized portfolio on Spring Street in Manhattan’s Soho.
“These were consistent with our focus on owning best-in-class retail in the key markets that our retailers view as mission critical,” said Ken Bernstein, Acadia’s president and CEO. “Then, on top of that, [the purchases allowed us to] own assets where we can aggregate enough buildings and enough tenancies in any given market that we can have the market intelligence, the ability to work with a variety of retailers, and enough critical mass that we can effectively push forward the curation of those streets, and see that they remain important and dynamic for years to come.”
Looking ahead, Acadia is working on the redevelopment of a San Francisco retail center called City Center that they hope to open in the first half of 2021. But the biggest item on their agenda is no more or less herculean than getting their current retailers back to business.
“Our most significant project is getting our retailers reopened safely and productively. Thankfully, we are well on our way,” Bernstein said. “We are now probably about 85 percent reopened, as the amount of pent-up demand from the consumer is very encouraging, and the realities of the future of retailing and omni-channel retailing are playing out, and I think bode well for our portfolio. Our retailers benefit not only from prime locations and the sales they can do out of these stores, but also from the halo effect of the online sales generated in conjunction with these stores, and all of the other benefits that come from having mission critical locations.”—L.G.
