PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

FIALA TAPPED TO HEAD ICSC FOR 2008-'09 TERM

By Edmund Mander

ICSC nominated Mary Lou Fiala, President and COO of Regency Centers, one of the world's leading open-air center owner firms, to be its next chairman.

In tapping Fiala, an ICSC trustee for the past five years, the organization has picked a candidate with broad experience on both the development and retailing sides. Fiala worked with Macy's for several years, serving variously as a sales manager and a buyer before moving up to senior vice president and director of stores for Macy's East/Federated Department Stores. She moved to Regency in 1998 from Security Capital Global Strategic Group, where she developed operating systems for the firm's retail-related initiatives.

"I see this industry from the retailers' perspective as well as the developers' side," she said, noting that this could be as valuable in her role at ICSC as it has been at Regency.

Regency has also embarked on an aggressive program to make its centers more environmentally sustainable, at a time when ICSC and the industry are making the environment a priority. Twenty percent of the centers Regency is set to break ground on this year will qualify for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, and the firm plans to boost that to 40 percent next year, and to 60 percent in 2010, says Fiala.

"Mary Lou is an ideal candidate for many reasons," said ICSC President and CEO Michael P. Kercheval. "Her work experience reflects many of the skills to be found among ICSC's diverse membership, and so do her priorities."

Regency's portfolio of grocery-anchored and community centers is similarly representative of much of the retail development around the world. Even in those countries with relatively new shopping center industries, developers have skipped several generations of shopping center evolution and are building open-air centers as modern as anything in the U.S., Kercheval says.

Fiala has presided over vigorous growth at Regency amounting to a 3 percent increase in same-property net operating income, on average, in each of the past nine years. Regency owns or co-owns some 450 centers in top markets throughout the U.S. and has over $1 billion worth of development in the pipeline. Moreover, a rigorous assessment of each center in Regency's portfolio based on the quality of the anchor has helped minimize the company's exposure to problems suffered by faltering grocery chains, she says.

Fiala, 56, lives with her husband, Jerry, a retired Motorola executive, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., outside Jacksonville. They have three daughters, including twins who have followed their mother's professional footsteps - Susan Lopera, who runs acquisitions on the West Coast for Kimco Realty Corp., and Sarah Rogers, who handles visual merchandising for Macy's in Florida. Their sister, Jennifer Miles, has a Masters degree in oncology nursing.

If, as expected, ICSC's Board of Trustees confirms Fiala's selection at the RECon convention in Las Vegas in May, she will become the 49th person elected to head the organization. She would succeed the current chairman, René Tremblay, president and CEO of Ivanhoe Cambridge.