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EDWIN HOMER, ARTISTIC DEVELOPER, DEAD AT 91

By Anna Robaton

Edwin N. Homer, an ICSC past chairman whose real estate career spanned over a quarter century, died Dec. 9 at age 91.

Homer, a native of Flushing, N.Y., and a World War II Army Air Corps veteran, retired in 1984 as chairman and CEO of Homart Development Co., a mall development arm of Sears, Roebuck and Co. that was sold in 1995 to General Growth Properties. Homart was one of the largest mall developers in the country during his tenure.

Homer was a prominent figure within ICSC for years. He joined the Board of Trustees in 1967, the year the organization’s membership first topped 2,000, serving for 10 years. He was ICSC chairman for the 1978–’79 term, and he stayed active with the organization afterward. “Ed was always there,” said Rebecca L. Maccardini, SCMD, a shopping center marketing executive and the ICSC chairwoman for the 1993–’94 term. Maccardini recalls Homer’s “quiet leadership” and the broad business perspective he brought to ICSC.

When Homer joined the board, he was in his first year as president of Troy, Mich.–based Chrysler Realty Corp., having been recruited by the auto manufacturer to lead its efforts to diversify its real estate development activities beyond dealerships. He was president of Chrysler Realty until 1980, when he left for Chicago to join Homart.

Homer was a quick study and a tough-minded manager, yet he had an unassuming style and an innate ability to connect with others on a personal level, a trait that colleagues say served him well throughout his career. His demeanor helped him attract and retain strong talent and made him a skillful negotiator who pulled together many joint ventures. Among them was the partnership in the early 1970s that developed the Big Sky ski resort in the pristine wilderness of southwestern Montana. Now one of the leading ski destinations in the country, Big Sky was the brainchild of NBC newscaster and Montana native Chet Huntley, who teamed up with Homer while the latter was still president of Chrysler Realty to get other investors to develop the resort with Chrysler. Burlington Northern, Conoco-Phillips Inc., General Electric Co., the now-defunct Montana Power Co. and Northwest Airlines ultimately signed on.

The resort opened in 1973 and was sold three years later to Boyne Falls, Mich.–based Boyne USA Resorts, which still owns it and has expanded it greatly since then. Colleagues say Big Sky was the project of which Homer was most proud. “I don’t think I have ever worked with a man who was better with people than Ed Homer,” said H. Gordon Wyllie, whom Homer recruited in the late 1950s to work for Yonkers, N.Y.–based Eastern Shopping Centers Inc., a now defunct development firm that was a division of Grand Union Co. “People liked Ed, and they trusted him.”

Homer was president of Eastern until he left for Chrysler, taking Wyllie with him as a vice president of development. “He was a great mentor of others,” said Wyllie. “There are an awful lot of people who have Ed to thank for their success.”

Under Homer, Chrysler Realty acquired office buildings, apartments and shopping centers, including The Boulevard Mall, one of the first major malls in Las Vegas. In addition to Big Sky, the company developed the prestigious Wabeek golf course, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., with home builder Del Webb Corp., acquired by Pulte Homes, Inc., in 2001. The course, which opened in 1972, was designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus. “His knowledge of the business and the relationships he had with so many people made it easier to do these deals,” said Wyllie, who now resides in Palmetto Bay, Fla., and is president of consulting firm Wyllie Group.

Homer’s career at Chrysler took an unexpected turn when the auto giant ran into financial trouble in the late 1970s. To raise cash, the company sold its real estate assets. Shortly after, Homer took the reins at Homart, working closely with the chief executive of Coldwell Banker, another Sears unit at the time. There Homer diversified the company’s holdings, developing office properties and community centers in addition to regional malls. He also began to sell some of Homart’s malls, making it a bigger contributor to the Sears bottom line. “It truly made Sears realize what a valuable asset they had in Homart and how important it was that Homart keep building centers to keep the pipeline of profits full,” said L. Michael Foley, CSM, an ICSC past trustee and an executive vice president under Homer at both Chrysler Realty and Homart­.

Homer continued to be active in real estate even after he retired from Homart through some of his own investments in development projects in Chicago, among other things. Homer “could look at an opportunity and see potential that others didn’t,” said Foley.

But Foley and others remember Homer as much for his love of art as for his accomplishments in the business world. Homer was the nephew of the renowned American artist Kimon Nicolaides, author of the influential book The Natural Way to Draw. But Homer was also a prolific artist himself. Early in his career he drew a newspaper comic strip called “The Duke of Manhattan.” Homer, who earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering in the Air Force, had no significant formal art training, though he did spend a considerable amount of time as a young man watching his uncle teach at The Art Students League of New York.

Throughout his life Homer sketched and painted frequently. He often doodled during airplane rides and business meetings, making sketches of Big Sky and other drawings that colleagues still remember. Many of his paintings were of the wildflowers he picked in the woods surrounding his home in Metamora, Mich., where for years he hosted an annual party that drew dozens of business leaders from across the country. Many toured his studio and showroom during the yearly event. “Ed Homer always had a pencil and sketchbook in hand,” said John T. Riordan, an ICSC past president and past trustee, one of many ICSC leaders who attended Homer’s annual gathering. “Almost anyone who knew him was a beneficiary of his art in one way or another,” said Riordan, recalling the holiday cards he sent out each year featuring reproductions of his paintings and signed simply “Ed.”

“One of my most prized possessions is a small painting of flowers that he gave me when I retired” from Forbes-Cohen Properties, in Southfield, Mich., said Maccardini, now president of her own marketing consulting firm, Rebecca Maccardini Resources, based in Ann Arbor, Mich. “He was one of the first people there at my retirement party.” Maccardini credits Homer with helping her become the first chairwoman of ICSC by backing her nomination. “Ed was a big supporter of mine at a time when I wasn’t even aware of him,” she said.

Homer is survived by his wife, Barbara H. Homer; a daughter, Susan (married to Greg) Smith; two sons, Nick (married to Debbie) and Michael Homer; a sister, Louise Schiftner; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.