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MATERNAL MENTORS

MORE FEMALE REAL ESTATE EXECUTIVES ARE BRINGING THEIR DAUGHTERS INTO THE BUSINESS

By Molly Knight

The retail real estate industry has a long tradition of fathers welcoming their sons into the business. This tradition is expanding now to mothers who initiate their daughters. Some 30 years ago women began entering the industry, and today the daughters of these pioneers have begun reaching the age to follow in those footsteps.

“This has just started happening recently, as the first group of us now have kids who are in their 20s and beginning their careers,” said Debra Ramey, a 30-year veteran and a partner at the Norfolk, Va., office of The Shopping Center Group, an Atlanta leasing and management firm.

In the early 1970s Ramey took a job as a secretary at the Coliseum Mall, in Hampton, Va. Within six years, she was managing that center. At the time, some store managers voiced concerns about whether a female could handle managing a mall, she recalls. “Back then, women simply weren't mall managers,” said Ramey, who points to her ICSC membership number — 1583 — as an indicator of how long she has been in the business (the organization today boasts some 73,000 members). “Women weren't in any leadership positions within this industry, but that's OK, because it ended up being the most fun I ever had in my life.”

Given the long hours the job demanded, Ramey jokes that daughter Lesley, 29, was raised in a mall. But though she has joined her mother at Shopping Center Group, no one should assume that the girl grew up dreaming about stepping into mom's shoes, the elder Ramey says. “Kids usually don't want to do what their parents do,” said Debra Ramey. “She got her degree in computer science, so for her to end up joining me in this business has been probably the coolest thing that's ever happened to me professionally.”

After graduation the younger Ramey went to work as a programmer but found that to be unfulfilling. “Being in a cubicle all day was no fun,” said Lesley Ramey. “I really missed being around people.” So she decided to try her hand over at Shopping Center Group, where her mother is grooming her to be an agent. Said Debra Ramey: “We work on every deal together, and I try to teach her everything I know. It's a nice balance, because she understands the technology side of the business, and my clients love her. Sometimes they call and ask for her instead of me now.”

While Lesley Ramey has begun putting deals together independent of her mother, she also has embraced a benefit the children of respected or famous parents enjoy: Discontinuing use of her married name, she reverted to Ramey. “I realized people would start returning my calls if I changed my last name back to Ramey rather than continue to use my husband's last name,” she said. “Being able to connect with people based on my mother's reputation has helped tremendously.”

Women starting out in the business today should likewise use any link they can, says Marilyn Coolidge, who in 1975 became the first woman Safeway ever hired as a real estate representative. “It was a bit lonely, because I didn't have access to the old-boy's network,” said Coolidge, who currently is senior vice president of leasing at Petrie Ross Ventures, a commercial real estate development firm in Annapolis, Md. “I had to put up with a lot of male chauvinism and work really hard to be accepted. I'd show up to do a deal, and sometimes they'd ask, ‘What are you doing here?' because they were expecting a man.”

Five years ago Coolidge's husband, Jack, a regional property manager for Federal Realty Investment Trust, showed her a classified ad from Dunkirk, Md.–based commercial furnishings company Victor Stanley. They agreed that the company would be a great fit for their daughter, Claire, a recent graduate. Jack Coolidge had been buying products from Victor Stanley for 10 years, and his wife was impressed with the company's excellent reputation. “I knew the company and thought the world of it,” said Marilyn Coolidge. “Claire went through the whole application process on her own, and my husband and I crossed our fingers and hoped it would work out.”

It did. Today 28-year-old Claire Coolidge is a regional sales manager for Victor Stanley. “It's kind of funny that I had no intention of following either of my parents into their fields,” she said. “And now the three of us head off to the ICSC convention in Vegas together every year.”

Claire Coolidge says she believes she has the best of both worlds, because she is able to network with people her mother has known for years and yet can blaze her own path in a different discipline. “Everywhere I go someone will say to me, ‘I love your mom,' ” she said. “I'm lucky to be able to make those connections, but also to make my own contacts.”

Mother has enjoyed the connection as well. “I get e-mails from people I've known for 20 years that say, ‘I just met the most wonderful woman the other day, and I just realized she's your daughter,' ” said Marilyn Coolidge. “As a parent, that just gives me so much pride.”

Gayle Aertker has been in real estate development for nearly three decades. She, too, says that having a successful daughter in the industry is a source of tremendous joy. Before she joined Goodlettsville, Tenn.–based Dollar General as senior vice president of real estate and development, Aertker was executive vice president of real estate and construction at Delray Beach, Fla.–based Office Depot, vice president of real estate acquisitions at Issaquah, Wash.–based Costco and vice president of real estate at Toys ‘R' Us. Aertker was only the second female officer Wayne, N.J.–based Toys ‘R' Us ever had.

When daughter Helen Aertker Schultz, 28, became a real estate lawyer at Sills, Cummis & Gross, in Newark, N.J., two years ago, Gayle Aertker says she was excited to introduce her to many of the people she had met throughout her career. “I'd hoped my reputation could help guide her and give her a chance to make connections early,” said the elder Aertker. “It's so hard for any newcomer to have a chance to be respected in this industry, but it continues to be especially challenging for women, as this business remains male-dominated.”

Schultz traces her interest in commercial real estate to the Aertker dinner table where, as an adolescent, she would listen to her parents discuss the deals they were working. Her father, Walter Aertker, a development professional, is involved in rebuilding some schools destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. Schultz recalls her mom bringing her along to some project sites.

“She was very proud of her locations,” said Schultz. “Around the time I was 13, I first heard terms like ‘ingress' and ‘egress' and learned what a demographic was and how important highway access was and different environmental challenges that go into development. I found it interesting and always paid attention.”

Despite her interest in commercial real estate, Schultz always wanted to become an attorney. But in law school she took a real estate class and enjoyed being in familiar territory. “It felt so natural to me,” said Schultz. “And I decided that if I became a real estate attorney, I could really build a career that would have the longevity to last me a lifetime, as opposed to going into something like litigation.”

Now that Schultz puts lease deals together from the legal side, she consults her parents regularly about construction and tenanting challenges. She is grateful for the relationships her mother has built over the years. “My mom has introduced me to some of the best people in real estate,” said Schultz. “Through those connections I've made, I've been able to develop a couple clients on my own here at the firm, which is difficult for a new associate to do.”

In an industry that trades on the good names of its members, it has never been more appropriate for women to realize the legacy they will be leaving their daughters, says Aertker. “To all the women working in this business, I would say it's important to always do the right thing,” Aertker said. “You never know if your daughter might end up following in your footsteps.”