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BUSTING BORDERS

New chairman Jaap Gillis has big plans for ICSC Europe

By Steve McLinden

Jaap Gillis, the new chairman of the ICSC European Board, was destined to become a real estate craftsman. During his youth, Gillis traveled extensively with his family, who instilled in him a sense of place and a profound appreciation of architecture and art as he toured culturally rich cities and museums. Back at home he grew up watching his architect father design buildings tailored to uniquely Dutch neighborhoods and seeing his contractor grandfather build them.

“I have always had a curiosity about real estate because of these influences,” Gillis said, “and very early on I took an interest in watching how real estate and the shopping center industry evolved.”

Gillis never lost that curiosity, and he now has an opportunity to pass along his savvy to a broader audience. He took over the ICSC European chairmanship in April, succeeding Bertrand Courtois-Suffit, executive manager of Paris-based shopping center consultant firm Kharis Conseil, who had headed the board since 2002. The new chairman’s commitment to the industry manifests itself in an aggressive growth agenda for ICSC Europe and a lifelong philosophy that retail development “needs to touch its environment’s unique magic.”

Meanwhile, Gillis is busy with yet another professional transition. Only a month before his ICSC appointment, he became COO of Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Redevco Europe Services, a 150-year-old firm specializing in inner-city investment and development. The firm has some 5 million square feet of holdings in 14 countries and an investment portfolio of €6.7 billion ($8.5 billion). Gillis says he plans to expand that to about €10 billion over the next few years through diversification and acquisition. He is also overseeing the creation of a Redevco European development division.

Before joining Redevco Gillis served for six years as managing director, vice chairman and management board member of Netherlands-based AM Development and its predecessor, MDC, a company he once described as “a conceptual developer with an eye for the human environment in a social context.” Gillis headed commercial property development in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany; in addition, he created the AM Property Fund and fine-tuned the firm’s asset-management strategies. Before that, he headed international investment and development for ING Real Estate’s Netherlands arm.

Gillis says that as ICSC Europe chairman, he will work to recruit more young industry leaders into the organization’s cast of retail veterans. This will ensure that the organization comes to represent the future of the profession without losing its sense of the past, he says. “That way, each generation has the chance to be inspired by the others and to learn to the benefit of the industry as a whole and the people and communities that it serves,” he said. Further, the retail business needs more intellectual leaders with a “deep and unlimited curiosity,” a grasp of geographic market trends and the ability to devise timely strategies, he says.

“Although ‘location, location, location’ is important, so is reading, reading, reading,” he offers ICSC Europe members by way of advice. “Research everything; keep up with people in the industry.”

The international aspect of his role in the organization excites Gillis. He recounts how he was enlightened by his visit to the 2006 Olympic Games, in Turin, Italy, where he witnessed “an inspiring sense of international cooperation.” The trip opened his eyes to the benefits of bringing cultures together in the name of human achievement, Gillis says. He began to realize that there are still many countries in Asia and the Middle East that ICSC can reach out to in that same spirit.

“We can grow links between these cultures and others,” he said. “We live in a knowledge economy, and these countries can learn from our mistakes and take advantage of all our positives. Education in shopping centers should be shared.” ICSC Europe will proffer additional support to the emerging shopping center industries in Central and Eastern Europe, he says.

The profession can make a substantial contribution to the environment, too, says Gillis, explaining that his upbringing helped him develop an appreciation for sustainable building techniques. Some of the centuries-old structures in Europe’s inner cities have remained versatile through the generations because of the wisdom inherent in their original design. “Some of them have been homes, then restaurants, then shops, then homes again,” he said. “Real estate with good height and the right volume is usually sustainable, much like many of the old brownstone residences in Boston and New York, which in many cases have become shops or restaurants.”