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THE HYBRID EXECUTIVE

FORMER STARBUCKS REAL ESTATE MAVEN YVES MIZRAHI APPLIES HIS SKILLS TO ARCHITECTURE

By Steve McLinden

In 1980 when Yves Mizrahi left his job as a treasury analyst at an oil-and-gas company to join Seafirst Bank as a senior financial analyst, he seemed to be plotting a linear career path as a number cruncher.

Yet, one decade later Mizrahi found himself out on a professional limb, rubbing elbows with a young entrepreneur named Howard Schultz and mapping out what many felt was a risky growth strategy for a modest chain of 19 coffee stores centered in Seattle.

A big question loomed: Is this “Starbucks” thing robust enough to go national? If not, Mizrahi knew it would not be for want of enthusiasm or optimism on the part of Schultz, whose real estate department then consisted entirely of the Paris-born Mizrahi, whom he had hired out of consulting to be vice president of real estate and store development. “Howard believed in me, just as he believes in all the people he hires,” Mizrahi said. “And things just took off. I was very, very fortunate to be a part of that experience.”

By 1997 the percolating Starbucks machine had the former number cruncher accounting for 1,200 stores and for the roughly 100 employees directly in his charge. Starbucks was well on its way to street-corner ubiquity. All the site-searching and soul-searching had paid off big for Mizrahi, who never imagined this kind of involvement as he was earning a biology degree at the University of Washington and an MBA in finance from the University of Puget Sound.

Suddenly, Mizrahi found himself able to retire as a relatively young man. And retire he did. Perhaps not surprisingly, though, it did not take. Retail real estate, which had first struck Mizrahi’s fancy during a five-year tenure as senior economist and real estate specialist at NBBJ Group, a Seattle-based retail architecture firm, was still in his blood. “My retirement lasted about six months,” he said. “I was trying to keep myself occupied. I was working out two hours a day, had an executive suite and had a few other things going, but I really needed to be out there doing something.”

It so happened that his good friend and former colleague, Arthur Wahl, principal of Wahl & Associates, a Seattle commercial brokerage, needed help orchestrating an aggressive nationwide rollout of an up-and-coming bank chain called Washington Mutual. So Mizrahi, who had been a vice president under Wahl (a man he refers to as a “guru of retail”) from 1988 to 1990, was drawn out of retirement largely to help WaMu become yet another national force.

Mizrahi recalls how another prominent Seattle businessman, Jeffrey Brotman, chairman and co-founder of Costco, had recommended Mizrahi for his original tour of duty with Wahl in the late 1980s. This was largely because Mizrahi spoke French, and Wahl’s group was handling the U.S. expansion of French grocery chain Carrefour. In 1999 Wahl & Associates, including Mizrahi, merged with the Seattle office of CB Richard Ellis. Wahl now heads the organization’s retail practice.

Mizrahi’s success has continued unabated during this latest phase of his “retirement.” In April Seattle-based design firm Callison Architecture hired him to head Callison Real Estate Strategies, which offers strategic real estate analysis and business-planning services. “These are the things that will really help round out the company as a truly full-service shop,” Mizrahi said.

Mizrahi did not come into Callison cold. At CBRE he had already collaborated with Callison on projects involving Cabela’s and Nike, as well as Costco, Starbucks and Washington Mutual. In his new role Mizrahi works with about 100 equally high-octane clients, including General Growth Properties, Harrods, Nordstrom and Seibu Department Stores.

A big part of Mizrahi’s job at CBRE was to look at a retail concept and determine how many units could be rolled out. At Callison, he is taking that further. He and his team will do a best-use study and then formulate a marketing strategy. From there, Mizrahi will recommend locations for test stores.

Callison Real Estate Strategies also offers pro forma analysis, financial and regulatory due diligence, merchandising analysis and lease-negotiation consulting.

Mizrahi says the structure of his new Callison post made sense to him. “And the beauty of the relationship is that it works so well because it complements everything else Callison is doing,” he said. “We are feeding lots of validated information to retail architects.”

Mizrahi “can talk to people and really get them to understand a concept,” said Wahl. “He’s a smart guy, and everywhere he’s gone, he’s done a terrific job.” Mizrahi is comfortable with his role at Callison, Wahl says, “because he knows his clients will see him as a consultant and advisor, not just someone who is trying to make a deal.”

Does this type of full-service approach represent the future of commercial architecture firms? “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think so,” said Mizrahi. “But to pull it off, a company has to have the proper culture and mindset, as well as the direction and vision from the top down.”

Some brand-imaging companies have tried to branch into store design with mixed success, but it is much easier for a well-established retail architect firm such as Callison to leverage expertise into branding and other services, Mizrahi says. His broad business background, which also includes a stint as an equities analyst, will help Callison formulate strategies for such nonretail clients as AT&T, FedEx and Microsoft. “You could say I’m a hybrid,” Mizrahi said. “There are so few of us in this business who have worked in so many diverse areas.”

Though Mizrahi’s entrance into retail real estate began with NBBJ, his interest was piqued years before through spousal osmosis. His wife, Debbie, was an advertising executive at Nordstrom. “I had always been fascinated by retail, even when I was in the financial industry,” he said. “It is an exciting business.”

Mizrahi, 52, spends much of his week on the road but rarely travels on weekends because of his commitment to home life. He, his wife and their 16- and 20-year-old daughters still vacation as a family. “Family is very important to me,” he said. “It comes first.” The Mizrahi clan likes to kick back at their second home in Sun Valley, Idaho, though Mizrahi confesses he is seldom without his trusty BlackBerry, even when on vacation.

Several business precepts from the Starbucks days remain deeply ingrained in him, he says. “The top one, and I share this belief with Howard Schultz, is that it’s all about the people and the quality of the people you have in your organization,” he said. “The next one, as old-fashioned as it might sound, is to do the right thing and success will come. That really resonated from Starbucks, because it was enhanced by Howard and his team. We were aggressive, but we did everything ethically and aboveboard.”

A third carry-over philosophy is the importance of giving the management team the independence and respect it needs to get the job done. “Yes, there are challenges to doing this, but when you hire the best, you have to believe in them and not micromanage them,” he said. “It’s still about relationships and your reputation. That’s why Starbucks is so successful, and that’s why Callison is so successful.”