Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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There is certainly no shortage of sons who have followed their founder dads into the family business, but as more women go into the professions, more recently there have been some notable examples of daughters who have entered the family business LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER MEET THE DAUGH T ERS WHO HAVE FOLLOWED THEIR SENIOR-EXECUTIVE FATHERS INTO THE RETAIL REAL ESTATE PROFESSION By Ben Johnson A U G U S T 2 0 1 6 / S C T 55 P H o T o : B E n S I m o n F amily traditions run deep at Casto. Celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, Columbus, o hio–based Casto is a third-generation privately held owner, ac- quirer, developer and manager of shopping centers and apartment and office buildings. For the past 10 years, CE o Don m . Casto III, grandson of founder Don m . Casto Sr., has been working alongside his daughter Kelly."I never called him dad, it was always D m C," said Kelly. Don also has a son, John, who is a Stanford graduate and is employed at Apple, Inc. Rather than having a preordained career path easily laid out before her, Kelly's start in the busi- ness was almost a pure fluke. In 2002, when she was just recently graduated from college in Ver- mont, she suffered a burn to her hand, and Don brought her into the office to do some light work. "I had no idea what my dad did," Kelly recalled, "and I didn't care anything about real estate, but I just fell in love with the business." She became a retail leasing agent, closing some 40 lease transactions before leaving to pursue an m BA from o hio State, which she completed in 2006. Kelly returned to the family firm tow years after that, and today she is assists with the leasing, prop- erty management, budgeting and financing for a 7 million-square-foot portfolio of some 70 assets in Alabama, California, Florida, Illinois, o hio, n orth Carolina, Vermont and Puerto Rico. "Kelly is smart, cheerful and has a great personality, and having someone in the business with those assets is always an advantage," said Don. "We always had a close relationship, never any ten- sion or difficulties. Having her as part of the team here was a joy for me." To minimize possible tensions in the workplace, Don has kept to a policy that helps mitigate any perceptions of nepotism — a common challenge in these situations, and one that can actually make it harder for family members to prove themselves. "We have a culture of high performance,