PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

LIMITED BY CHOICE

Jamie Bersani’s journey to the top of Limited Brands’ real estate division took some interesting turns

By Steve McLinden

Jamie Bersani has just risen to the top of the real estate division at Limited Brands, but he hardly took the shortest route to get there.

As a young grad fresh out of the Syracuse (N.Y.) University School of Management, Bersani saw accountancy as his future. So he studied by night to earn his CPA while crunching numbers by day for the large national accounting firm of Ernst & Whinney.

A few years later, an unfulfilled Bersani switched course. Maybe he was better suited to the legal end of the business, he thought, so he returned to Syracuse for a law degree, which he earned in 1984.

Now a promising young attorney, Bersani was scooped up immediately, this time by Coopers & Lybrand, another major accounting firm. “But I got tired of that pretty quickly too,” he confessed. “It just wasn’t for me.”

So he jumped into yet another profession, one that he knew far less about than the other two: retail real estate. Bingo. Bersani fell in love with the industry and with Columbus, Ohio-based Limited, which he joined in 1986.[ “When I made that jump, I had no idea what was going to happen, but I took to it like a duck to water,” he said.

Apparently his superiors agree. In April some 20 years into his tenure at Limited, Bersani was promoted to head of the department. As executive vice president, he will oversee the retailer’s massive real estate presence.

Today Limited Brands operates about 3,600 stores under the Bath & Body Works, C.O. Bigelow, Express, Henri Bendel, The Limited, Victoria’s Secret and White Barn Candle names, totaling about 20 million square feet of space in some of the nation’s best shopping centers.

Bersani says to get this far, he has had to adapt to some big changes. Bersani hit the ground at a sprint during retail real estate’s “run and gun” era. “Real estate was very opportunistic then,” he said. “Fifty to 100 malls a year were being built. At the time, the risk of not being at the big party was greater than the risk of opening a few marginal stores. So away we went.” Bersani estimates that he completed about 200 deals a year ITALby himselfITAL during that period. “It was a nutty pace.”

Things started to turn in the early 1990s. “There was trouble in paradise,” he recalls. “The overbuilding of the 1970s and 1980s was coming back to roost. Financing dried up. Developers got into trouble. You had to develop asset management skills and find a way to make do with your existing portfolio instead of just opening stores. … [I]t became more strategic and less opportunistic.”

By the mid-1990s, the business was returning to health as retail branding came into vogue and retailers set out to create an emotional connection with customers. Simultaneously, REITs were rising, landlords were merging, dot.coms were booming, and mass merchandisers were threatening.

Then came lifestyle centers, which rendered some malls irrelevant or obsolete, he says. Today the more refined town center approach, with its upscale food offerings and enhanced customer service and entertainment components, continues to be the catalyst for ongoing change, he says.

It was not just Bersani’s own experience that enabled him to take such changes in stride. The 47-year-old has benefited from the wisdom of several company mentors, he says, including real estate wiz Jerry Dick, who took Bersani under his wing early on. “I learned the value of relationships and information networks and loyalty from Jerry,” he said. “Through those relationships, he always seemed to be in the know, and I have kept that in the back of my head ever since.”

Another influence was George (Buck) Sappenfield, now an executive at Westerville, Ohio-based Asset Strategies Group, who headed Limited’s real estate operations. Bersani worked under Sappenfield for 13 years. “Buck taught me the importance of balance with my personal life, family and work — and that it was okay to have a sense of humor.”

Rounding out Bersani’s perspective is the influence of Limited Chairman and CEO Leslie H. Wexner, who launched the chain in 1963, opening its first store on the strength of a $5,000 loan from an aunt. “He remains one of our industry’s greatest retail visionaries and pioneers,” Bersani said.

Limited’s headquarters sit directly across from the vigorous Easton Town Center retail complex, where the execs launch — and keep a close eye on — their concepts. In fact, the Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works stores at Easton serve as incubators for remodels, new formats and fresh products. (Wexner was a codeveloper of Easton, building the mixed-use complex on land originally intended to be used for a huge headquarters-distribution complex for Limited.)

Victoria’s Secret, whose 1,000-plus stores post annual aggregate sales in excess of $3.2 billion, is considered by many to be the darling of all Limited’s brands. Victoria’s Secret Direct, as the mail-order and Web operation is called, posts additional sales of approximately $1.2 billion. Bersani says he remains excited about the potential of the concept and its Pink subbrand, which Limited launched in stores nationwide in 2004. “Pink was widely successful in its first full year and has huge growth potential,” Bersani said.

He is particularly proud to have positioned Limited Brand stores in the Forum Shops at Caesars, in Las Vegas, considered to be the most successful shopping venue in America, with sales of $1,600 to $1,800 per square foot, said Bersani. “I was there when they were developing it and was always a believer in the project,” he said. “We signed up early in the game, and I was excited to work those deals and see the center come to fruition.” He also played a big role in bringing a new Victoria’s Secret prototype store to Forum Shops last year.

Indeed, tinkering with existing concepts in one way or another can easily be as satisfying as launching new ones, he says. “After spending 20 years with one company, the most rewarding deals are being able to correct some mistakes you made early on,” he said. “If you live long enough, some leases won’t work out.”

Much as he loves his work, Bersani invests heavily in his off-work hours too. He said he enjoys traveling and family time most of all. “I just like hanging out with my beautiful wife Ashley and laughing with her.”

He plays a little golf and a lot of piano — a discipline he began at age 6. “I play mostly jazz,” he said.

He also likes to shop and cites Abercrombie & Fitch as a venue he particularly likes. “It used to be a part of the Limited Brands family,” he said. “It is a fun place for play clothes.”

Over the years, Limited has purposely evolved into a diversified company. “Ten years ago apparel was three-quarters of what we did,” he said. “Today, we are one-third apparel, one-third personal body care and one-third intimate apparel. We know our customer well. We’re in her closet. We talk to her. We have been around for more than 40 years, and we will continue to stay intimate with the customer to evolve. That’s our point of difference.”

Aside from Limited’s concepts, Bersani says he admires Starbucks and Target. “Starbucks is not a soft-goods retailer,” he said, “but talk about building a brand and perceived value! People love the experience, and you can put Starbucks virtually anywhere and make it work. It’s taking something very basic and selling it at a premium because of the value proposition. And I don’t even drink coffee!” As for Target, he said, “they have made the mass market cool. You don’t feel stigmatized going in the stores.”

The truly dynamic shopping centers, he says, continue to treat their properties as works in progress. “The most successful landlords focus on building a total experience that combines the right tenant mix with the right architecture, design, entertainment features and convenience factors.”

What does the future hold for retailing? “If done properly, lifestyle centers can be very compelling destinations, but I worry that the envelope is being pushed in all this heated competition to build them,” Bersani said. “Much like what we saw in the 1980s with regional mall development, you wonder if the [overbuilding] pattern will repeat itself.” That said, Limited will not hesitate to locate in some of the best lifestyle centers, “as long as they are compelling and provide critical mass,” he said. “But we are predominantly mall-based, and for us the lifestyle center has to be pretty hot to risk cannibalizing existing mall sales.”

The industry should continue to capitalize on technology enhancements over the next few decades, but there must also be an underlying focus on convenience and quality, he says. “Most importantly, the retail experience must continue to evolve to offer strong emotional content for the consumer.”

And no one knows more about evolution and emotional attachment than Bersani, given the turns his career has taken.“I love what I do, and I love who I do it with, plus I enjoy seeing all these stores and concepts come to life,” he said. “You really like coming to work when you feel that way

© 2010 ICSC. All rights reserved. | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Contact ICSC | ICSC Home |