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Newman to remain part of ICSC foundation picture

By Jon Springer

Harry Newman, chairman emeritus, ICSC Educational Foundation.

Though he stepped down as Chairman of the ICSC Educational Foundation in May, Harry Newman isn't exactly stepping aside.

As Chairman Emeritus, Mr. Newman will continue to help the foundation achieve its goal of promoting and supporting programs and institutions studying the shopping center industry. More important, his colleagues say, his influence on the program is here to stay.

Mr. Newman, chairman of Newman Properties of Long Beach, Calif., has been with the ICSC Educational Foundation since its founding in 1988. Under his leadership, the foundation virtually created a new field of study for dozens of university graduate programs, and alerted the academic community to the economic impact of the shopping center. Those efforts -- what some have called Mr. Newman's vision -- have resulted in the first academic research and scholarly journals regarding shopping centers.

"Harry has worked to take us from a point 10 years ago when there was very little knowledge of the industry, to a point now where there are cases being written, courses being taught, articles being printed and a great deal more desire from students to come into the industry," said Gary Brown, president of Venator Realty Group, New York, and Mr. Newman's successor as Foundation chairman.

The Educational Foundation is one of many accomplishments of Mr. Newman, a man just as at home developing a retail property as he is teaching a class or writing a poem -- he has published three books of poetry -- or play. Mr. Newman is also known as an active environmentalist, a leader of charitable activities and supporter of the performing arts. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, and earned a master's degree from Cambridge University, England.

Mr. Newman is "the scholar of the industry," according to John Konarski III, ICSC staff vice president and executive director of the Educational Foundation.

Reached at his Long Beach home in June, where he was recovering from recent heart surgery, Mr. Newman reflected on the accomplishments of the Foundation under his leadership. He said the overriding theme of his work there was to "make academic work less academic and more practical."

Some examples of that work are gathered in the twice-yearly Journal of Shopping Center Research. Articles in that publication have addressed issues including: the effect of entertainment anchors on other tenants in a shopping center; the effectiveness of "clustering" category retailers and the impact of discount anchors in conventional shopping centers.

"These are issues that people are very interested in," he said. "We helped pioneer study of them."

The Educational Foundation has also sponsored graduate study scholarships and internships, shopping center research conferences, academic research competitions, teaching aid development and various other special projects.

The Foundation is funded through private grants and income from the ICSC Reserve Fund.

Mr. Newman, who at 76 remains active as an owner and manager of his own company -- a part owner of the Village At Corte Madera, Corte Madera, Calif., Mr. Newman recently bought out San Diego-based TrizecHahn Corp.'s interest in the project -- said the changing nature of the shopping center industry makes it an ongoing and worthwhile intellectual pursuit.

The shopping center industry requires knowledge of "the interrelationship of personalities, the evaluation of economic trends, and a constant awareness of changes in the retailing market," he said. "The complexity of it all, and the fact that each situation is completely different: that's the intellectual challenge."

Bruce Ludwig, president of Ludwig & Co., Los Angeles, and a Trustee of the Educational Foundation, described Mr. Newman as "an entrepreneurial academic."

"He applies his academic background to the fundamentals of a business -- real estate -- that is clearly more of an art than a science," Mr. Ludwig said. "He tries to quantify the artistic part of it, so you can learn from lessons learned.

"I've often called him the canary in the mine. He can identify trends ahead of time, but more importantly, he can raise a warning flag and remind us to get back on track," Mr. Ludwig added. "One of the quotes I'll always remember him saying was, 'This industry is going to gain nothing from its successes. What we'll gain from is lessons learned from our mistakes.' That's what education is about."

As an educator, Mr. Newman is devoted not only to helping students but to challenging them at the same time, said Susan Kamei, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California who has taught with Mr. Newman at USC's graduate school of business.

"He's been a real mentor for me and a great inspiration in terms of giving me new ideas to think about and ways to think about the real estate industry," Ms. Kamei said. "He's also a very caring individual who's very interested in each person. But you have to stay on your toes to keep up with Harry."

Ms. Kamei said Mr. Newman has done just that for the Educational Foundation. "He's always interested in the new idea and the next creative application," she said.

Academic research on shopping centers virtually didn't exist before the ICSC Educational Foundation. It was Mr. Newman's influence -- and his belief in the importance of education -- that changed all that in a relatively short time.

"Without a doubt, the reason there is such strong research and support, is because of Harry's nudging," said Mr. Ludwig. "He's a nudger. He's relentless."

He is also generous, colleagues say.

"Harry gave a lot of personal time and commitment to the Foundation. It wasn't just his professional time," added Mr. Konarski. "The foundation is very much a reflection of Harry."