Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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what stores were once there, which walls were torn down, and which ones were added." And yet the story also con- tains some more-personal elements. Westfarms Mall is not only where Keenan found his vocation, it is also where he met his wife, Joann. "There was a roof leak at The Limited, some sort of HVAC problem," he recalled. "I went to the back door with my tool belt, and this beau- tiful woman answered the door. I quickly forgot why I was standing there." The mall is also where he met some of his closest friends. Facilities director Joseph Leiberis, who has been at the mall for nearly as long as Keenan, is one. He and Keenan enjoy claim- ing that they both achieved their best golf scores ever in 1985, as they stood watch over the facility during Hurricane Gloria and tried to kill time by hitting golf balls from the parking lot. With the mall's expansion over the years from its initial 15 stores to the current 160, Keenan's responsibilities have corre- spondingly expanded. From cleaner he rose to custodial superin- tendent, and then from facilities director to operations director before attaining the position he now holds. When Westfarms Mall opened, there were three department stores, of which only JCPenney remains; Lord & Taylor arrived in the 1980s. The mall's biggest structural and identity changes occurred when Nordstrom opened there in the mid 1990s, later bringing up- scale retailers like Tiffany and Louis Vuitton in its wake. There were logistical, strategic and other challenges that came with the 176,400-square-foot Nordstrom's expansion. "Essentially, we were building the equivalent of another shop- ping center on-site," Keenan said. As part of the process, the mall needed to upgrade its sewage systems. But the best sewer connection lay adjacent to 100 homes, each served by its own septic system. It was Keenan's job to help convert them all to the new sewer system. Keenan was out at the houses every day — making sure "not to upset the azalea bed that Uncle Henry had planted there 20 years ago," he quips. The neighbors were "not crazy [about the idea] that the mall was expanding into their backyards," he said. "They worried about increased traffic and potential upticks in crime." Fortunately, Keenan was able to establish trust and good will among the residents. Keenan built the same sort of rapport with his superiors at the company. He never directly manifested any corporate ambi- tions, preferring instead, as he says, the operational side of the business. And yet he found himself included in meetings where the executives discussed long-term growth strategies and encour- aged questions. "Taubman creates a really inclusive culture," Keenan said. "They want everybody engaged and knowledge- able about the big picture and [able to] understand how your work contributes directly to the big picture. That environment allowed me to learn and grow." The company invited him to become general manager when the job opened up in 2000. Four years into the job, Keenan was again cast in the role of emissary. In 2004 Taubman Centers filed suit against West Hartford and some local developers, trying to stop construction of a $159 million, mixed-use development called Blue Back Square, located three miles from the mall. Residents, who had supported the deal, were incensed. "I sensed early on [that] there would be a bit of a battle between my employer and my commu- nity," Keenan said. "I loved both of them and made a conscious effort really early on to separate myself from the legal action and to focus on maintaining relations in the community." While the lawsuit played out in the papers, Keenan reminded residents about how much Westfarms had contributed to the community over the years. He made efforts to depersonalize the situation, explaining that the disagreements were "something that happened all the time with competing developers." In the end, Blue Back Square did open, in the fall of 2007. Two years later Taubman paid some $4.5 million to the town and about $34 million to the owners of Blue Back Square in a settlement over the litigation-induced construction delays, ac- cording to the Hartford Courant. Even so, today Westfarms Mall continues to thrive under Keenan's stewardship, having recently completed a multimillion-dollar renovation that saw the ad- ditions of Lego, Microsoft and Athleta stores, as well as an ex- panded Forever 21. Though Keenan had not intended to have a career in the re- tail business, he says he considers himself blessed to have found a workplace whose intricacies and ancestry he knows as well as his own. S C T t h e m a l l h a s g r o w n i n t a n d e m w i t h r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s . J u l y 2 0 1 5 / S C T 55