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JERÓNIMO RUIZ, 87

Jerónimo Ruiz Jr., who raised the shopping center industry’s profile in Puerto Rico and served as the commonwealth’s first ICSC state director from 1986 to 1989, died July 1. He was 87.

Known as Jerry, Ruiz was a leasing and shopping center management specialist in Puerto Rico. Most recently, he ran Shopping Centers Realty, a Bayamón-based leasing and management company specializing in office and retail properties. During the 1960s he brought several major retailers to the island’s shopping centers, including Belk, Builders Square, Kmart, Pace and Sears, says Doris Sifontes, partner and director of real estate at Shopping Centers Realty.

He was a leasing consultant to members of the Rothschild family, who developed the 485,000-square-foot Santa Rosa Mall, Bayamón, in 1966. He later became general manager of the property. He was also ICSC’s Puerto Rico state operations chairman between 1989 and 1992 and its state chairman for public relations and community service from 1991 to 1993.