Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/827208
52 S C T / J U N E 2 0 1 7 N E W S M A K E R S F or someone only a decade out of college, Mark Kaplan is bringing a lifetime's worth of shopping center expertise to his new real estate job. Kaplan, 32, who joined Jericho, N.Y.–based Ripco Real Estate Corp. in January as a principal and COO, was raised in a real estate family. His grandfather, Melvin, started Kabro Associates, a Woodbury, N.Y.–based developer of retail and residential properties, in the 1950s. As a boy Kaplan would shadow his father, Neal, on visits to shopping centers the family owned near their Long Island home. "I spent a lot of weekends and nights with my dad, checking on potholes, making sure tenants' lights didn't have any bulbs out," Kaplan recalled. "I saw from a very early stage when I was 8 or 9 years old the attention to detail my father had when it came to operating shopping centers. It was pretty much a given [that] I would end up in real estate. In what capacity, it was not that clear, but I knew I loved the business." Yet Kaplan did not follow a direct path into the industry. After graduating from Tulane University with a finance degree, he took a job in the CMBS large-loan origination group at Credit Suisse. "As you can imagine, working at an investment bank when you are 21 years old is like drinking from a fire hydrant," Kaplan said. "You have to learn very quickly on the job." Kaplan left Credit Suisse in 2007, after just two years — and seemingly in the nick of time. As the bottom fell out of the economy in 2008 and 2009, Branching out Mark Kaplan is exploring new revenue streams for brokerage firm Ripco By Jesse Serwer " As you can imagine, working at an investment bank when you are 21 years old is like drinking from a fire hydrant. You have to learn very quickly on the job"