Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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A U G U S T 2 0 1 6 / S C T 69 Omaha, and the Fremont (Neb.) Mall. In 1999 he was promoted to mall man- ager at Battlefield Mall, in Springfield, Mo., where, among other projects, he led the re- development planning of the food court. He was there only 10 months before his superi- ors appointed him mall manager of Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, in Arlington, Va., in 2000. He arrived at the Pentagon City mall soon after Simon had boosted its stake and become a partner with CalPERS. Romstad was now overseeing property management for both retail and office spaces. "It was all a big learning process," Romstad said. One of his successes there was retooling the mall's short-term leasing program. He redesigned the layout of the food court, removing a 40-square-foot water fountain to make room for retail kiosks that brought in interesting retailers and provided a fresh revenue source. Not all his memories at Fashion Cen- tre are happy ones, however. He was there on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists crashed American Airlines flight 77 into the Penta- gon — right across the street from the shop- ping center. "The mall was not open yet, and there were no customers in the build- ing, thankfully," Romstad said. "I was doing a mall walk, when the plane hit. The force [of the impact] almost knocked me down." Fashion Centre became a makeshift help center. "A lot of [Pentagon] employees came in to use the phones to call their fami- lies, and some of their staff used our office building as an operating base," he said. If anything good came from the experience, it would be that Romstad gained some per- spective against which to measure any day- to-day professional challenges in the years that followed. In 2003 Romstad became Simon's re- gional vice president for the mid-Atlantic, where he oversaw some 60 regional malls and 15 mall renovations. Romstad's customer- focused renovation strategies — adding ame- nities like soft seating, more-convenient rest- rooms, enhanced lighting and improved food offerings — would serve as a template for re- furbishing roughly 50 Simon properties. "Michael's early input into decision mak- ing and process coordination allowed us to set up a scalable system to renovate properties in a customer-centric manner," said Timothy Earnest, Simon's executive vice president of property management. "He manages in a very positive and enthusiastic manner." It was this sort of detailed vision that inspired Simon executives to tap Romstad for his role involving Simon's Mills proper- ties, of which there are 16. "Mike's focus and strategic mindset fit our long-term re- development strategy to a T," said Gregg M. Goodman, president of The Mills. Good- man is looking to Romstad to again initiate "a closer integration with the many shared- services resources within the property man- agement world." This past spring found Romstad wrap- ping up renovations at Dallas–Fort Worth's Grapevine Mills Center and launching a restoration of Concord Mills, in Charlotte, N.C., and at Arizona Mills, in Tempe. "I look forward to working with Mills' execu- tives and property teams to continue the strong growth and momentum," he said. "I'm excited to share my experiences." S C T Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren, who has led the department store chain since 2003, will step down in the first quarter of 2017, to be succeeded by Jeff Gennette, the company's president. Gennette, 55, president since 2014, was named chief mer- chandising officer in 2009. Lundgren will con- tinue as executive chair- man. "While our company is larger, stronger and more resourceful than we were 13 years ago, now is the time to reset our business model to thrive in a future that is being driven by rapid evolu- tion in consumer pref- erences and shopping habits," Lundgren said, in a prepared statement. "Our company must and will change in response to the profound secular forces that are driving consumer spending." MACY'S NEXT CEO I was doing a mall walk when the plane hit. The force almost knocked me down