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Bio
Jodie McLean is Chief Executive Officer of EDENS, one of the nation’s leading private owners, operators and developers of retail real estate. With a more than 25-year tenure at EDENS, she has established herself as a key player in the company’s growth and expansion to its current marketplace leadership, capitalized by blue chip investors and assets valued at $6.5 billion.
Jodie McLean is responsible for EDENS’ strategy to move the portfolio to major urban centers, creating a portfolio of assets that are the center of community life. She was named Chief Investment Officer in 1997, President in 2002 and CEO in 2015. Overall, she has been responsible for the development, redevelopment, acquisition and disposition of more than $15 billion in retail assets.
She passionately believes that retail should evolve beyond a shopping experience, and advocates for connectivity to the communities surrounding the company’s retail centers. To ensure this, each EDENS development is crafted to serve as an authentic gathering place, including a unique merchandising mix and welcoming design elements, fostering a sense of engagement with its neighbors.
A native of Chicago, IL, Jodie McLean holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Management from the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina and a degree from South Carolina Honors College. McLean serves as Trustee and Executive Board Member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Trustee of Urban Land Institute (ULI). She serves on the boards of Cushman & Wakefield, The Real Estate Round Table, Wofford College and Extended Stay America, as well as boards of several other institutions and charities. Jodie is a member of the Liberty Fellowship (Aspen Institute) Class of 2009.
Show Notes
Current Role and Perspective of Company
- Jodie McLean’s life at Edens is “pretty good” (3:00)
- 70% Retailers closed mandated by government (3:30)
- Role in “Community”- Provide essential services during pandemic (3:50)
- 115 places in 9 major markets (4:20)
- Role is CEO…went from strategic visionary leader to “chief rabbi, priest, community leader” (5:00)
- Intuitive work on community building (5:40)
- Address social issues- 15MM people everyday (6:20)
- “Enriching Community” is company purpose (6:50)
- Focus on retail (7:00)
- 2006- Broadband reached over 50% of households and the internet became a dominant force in lifestyle (7:30)
- Dial up internet shopping was life changing for her (8:25)
- Went to Town Centers and noticed that they were “all the same” and needed so much land (9:00)
- Forced herself to be more strategic and develop a “voice” (10:30)
- Women will drive retail and community becomes the lead (10:50)
- Shifted to purpose driven property perspective (11:00)
- De-levered the company to redirect purpose (12:30)
- Jodie McLean has found Four Trends accentuated by pandemic (12:50)
- Growth of E Commerce
- Rationalization of retail
- Hyper-localization- Attract people- 17 minute travel time
- Health and Wellness- Trend of isolation and loneliness offset by Community
- “Leading with Humanity” (15:45)
Jodie McLean – Origin Story
- Raised in Elmhurst, IL with solid Midwestern values (18:30)
- Had an egg route as a child (19:00)
- Boarding school at Hotchkiss (19:10)
- Third of three daughters and her father wanted a boy, but he was channeled toward sports (21:00)
- Father was a college athlete, so she competed (21:30)
- Tennis, field hockey, squash
- Mother was a leader in Montessori school startups (22:10)
- Tennis inspired her to come back after some failure quickly was a strong influence (22:50)
- “Don’t be afraid to take a shot!” Tells a story about not taking a shot when she could have but didn’t and regrets it because she wasn’t in position (Feels that being perfect was not necessary) (23:40)
- Grandmothers were huge influence (25:30)
- One grandmother didn’t have education but made sure her children would be educated (25:45)
- The other grandmother had to raise her family out of the Dust Bowl and her husband was inflicted with polio and raised family (26:30)
- Family has a huge impact on a person’s life and resiliences (28:00)
Education
- Attended University of South Carolina after four years at Hotchkiss Prep School in Connecticut (29:30)
- Large University, but in the Honors College, so a bit insulated (30:50)
- Exposed to people that were different (31:20)
- Grateful she had the experience of three different cultures (33:00)
- Wanted to go back to Chicago and work, but the economy in 1990 was so bad that she reconsidered opportunities (33:30)
- She participated in an Independent Study at Edens and Avant (33:50)
- It led to her employment after turning down twice
- Jodie McLean had worked as an intern in sports marketing at Universal Sports and thought it was what she wanted to do at the time (35:10)
- Joe Edens convinced her to join Edens (36:20)
Career Arc
- Jodie McLean started at Edens & Avant and worked very hard (37:10)
- Got to the office at 5:30am in the morning and she would meet Joe Edens every morning at that time (37:45)
- She kept asking Joe questions and developed a special relationship (38:20)
- Discusses destruction of properties from Hurricane Hugo (38:40)
- Joe became her mentor- she never said no to anything she would ask her to do (39:20)
- Spent time in every part of the company sponging as much information as possible (40:00)
- Experience with the RTC and workouts
- Learning so much and was exposed to so much due to the mentorship
- Mentorship and Sponsorship (42:00)
- Mentors have been guides and aides (42:20)
- Sponsor takes an interest in who you are and put their own reputation on your behalf (42:30)
- Owe the young people time to mentor and sponsor (43:30)
- Other opportunities arose because she was younger than peers in the company and she went in to tell Joe Edens that she wanted to leave (44:30)
- He implored her to stay by giving her their best project in Florence, SC and she needed help to do it and asked him who could help (45:00)
- She took on the responsibility and “knocked it out of the park” (46:30)
- Jodie McLean was then given the opportunity to recapitalize the company in 1997 and bought out 250 partnerships and rolled up the portfolio with the State of Michigan Pension Fund (49:00)
- Looked at a REIT IPO, but didn’t think it was ready (50:30)
- Story about GFS Realty portfolio purchase from Royal Ahold (the new owners of Giant Food at the time) (52:20)
- DC Market entry- Purchased a property in Manassas in 1998 (54:40)
- Acquired Samuels portfolio in Boston and learned more about the Ahold portfolio that way (55:10)
- Closed in 72 transactions in 1998 and became the largest landlord to Ahold owned grocers in the US (55:30)
- In 2000 JP Morgan was brought into Edens ownership mix (57:00)
- In 2002, Edens acquired Cascades Marketplace (the largest single center purchase) during the “Sniper Crisis” in the DC area (57:40)
- Coincided with accounting crisis at Ahold and this transaction gave them confidence to sell the remaining assets in their other seven properties in the GFS Realty portfolio (59:50)
- Evolved into development (1:00:40)
- Union Market District– Started acquiring in 2007 (1:01:40)
- Preceded by purchase of CityVista retail in 2007 and closed in 2008 (1:01:50)
- Sought out the “gritty” parts of the city and found it with the industrial portion of the city near the NOMA Metro Station (1:04:30)
- 45 acres situated with all aspects of growth and TOD (1:05:30)
- Adjacent Gallaudet University became a great partner (1:07:30)
- Took a timeout between 2008-2011 to work through zoning overlay to permit the density and uses needed (1:08:00)
- Bring back food and jobs to the neighborhood (1:08:30)
- Part of an ecosystem and needed to fit a role in a local community (1:10:50)
- Food Hall and Market stayed open during the pandemic (1:13:20)
- Closed for initial two weeks of shutdown, but was able to keep much of it open due to “necessary” services- delivery (1:14:00)
- Drive In Movie Theatre- Face of white building was screen for films- Brings life to the property and food delivery (1:15:30)
- Outdoor Art Exhibit- “Celebrating Melanin and Black Heritage” honoring people of color (1:18:45)
- Mosaic Project– Bought in 2010 (began working on it in 2004) (1:11:45)
- Purpose driven activity drove the ideas of place and design (1:12:15)
- Ecosystem of community (1:13:00)
- Drive In Movie there, as well
- Notes from customers saying “Thank You” to keep it open and offer community spirit
- Murals and a one acre park with socially distant circles and places to sit and play (1:21:00)
- Asset that changed the thought process to lead from the consumer’s perspective (1:23:10)
- Exceptional community with Tysons Mall nearby, but didn’t have a place for people to come together in a community setting (1:23:50)
- Find out the consumer’s needs and build to suit those needs- 80% of retail decisions made by women (1:24:45)
- She needed to feel special at this place (1:26:00)
- Convenience maintained despite its scale
- Curation- 3.5 trips per week and 5 hours time at the property (1:27:20)
- RTKL was architect- Bill Caldwell was the lead architect (1:27:50)
- Edens a challenging client for them, such that they needed him to come aboard as an in house architect (1:28:45)
- Caldwell became responsible for design and construction of projects (1:29:10)
- Goal to become carbon neutral by 2025 (1:30:00)
- Consultants that bring the emotional feel to the design (1:30:45)
- Looked a properties around the world to emulate quality (1:32:00)
- Two day tour of parking garages (1:32:20)
- Feels uncomfortable in many parking decks (1:33:00)
- Studied it well from a woman’s perspective (1:33:20)
- Wants to offer a 17 minute trip from home to the stores as efficiently as possible (1:33:40)
- Free parking (1:35:00)
- Union Market District– Started acquiring in 2007 (1:01:40)
Market Conditions in Retail
- Rationalization of Retail (1:36:40)
- 23.5 s.f. per capita today and evolve to 18 s.f. per capita (1:37:00)
- 2B s.f. of retail needs to be reconstituted into another use (1:37:30)
- More brands, but fewer “power brands” (1:39:00)
- Need stores for customer acquisition- better rate in a store than online (1:39:20)
- Fewer stores per brand (1:39:45)
- Stores a big part of “last mile” and fulfillment (1:40:20)
- Target is a fantastic retailer (1:40:40)
- Stores need to be embedded in community (1:41:15)
- Goal to get 1% more of customer’s time (1:41:30)
- Correlation between time and sales is now more recognized (1:42:00)
- Restaurants- short term crisis (1:44:10)
- Some needed to develop digital response (1:44:40)
- Others that cannot adapt will close (1:45:10)
- Innovative in use of space and technology (1:45:40)
- Theaters- Worry about them long term (1:46:45)
- Gyms- High end will survive. Middle and low end gyms may struggle (1:48:00)
- Innovations (1:49:15)
- Understand humanity and intersection with technology (1:49:20)
- Apparel stores approaching customers one on one (1:50:00)
- Drive individual and personal connection (1:50:15)
- Care about sustainability and authenticity (1:50:30)
- Seamless experience (1:50:50)
- Does customer want an “avatar?” Want a personal relationship even more. (1:51:00)
- Lower price market players (1:52:20)
- Balance between store and online investment critical to success going forward (1:52:45)
- Fewer stores with more impact at each store (1:53:00)
- Retailers cannot take on debt like PPP loans that make it challenging (1:53:50)
- New business investment perspective (1:54:20)
- Buy at best locations- 17 minute drive time to a large enough population (1:54:50)
- Ability to create a sense of place (1:55:20)
- Driving job growth- shift in markets where jobs will grow (1:55:50)
- Disposable income (1:56:20)
- Hiring preference
- Intellect, Curious and with Humility (1:56:50)
- Confident- Able to fail fast and adapt (1:57:15)
- Strong leaders- Trained to stop and make sure every voice is heard (1:59:30)
- Wins- More about personal relationships on properties and evidence of community building
- Picking the right partners at Edens and institutional partners (2:03:00)
- Losses- Two deals that didn’t happen due to not taking enough risk (2:03:30)
- Surprises- Impact we offer every day (2:30:30)
- Cites story about church killing where Edens stepped into help bring down the Confederate Flag down at the SC state house (2:04:40)
- Billboard- “Vote down ballot”, Will be loading a “mantra” for Edens’ entire portfolio (2:08:15)
- Be vulnerable
- Say hello
- Open yourself up
- Moments of kindness that make people larger than themselves
- Community is the foundation
Postscript
- Tom Amos –
- Attended Mosaic District (2:12:50)
- Visited Union Market
- Reflects on Jodie’s perspective in 2006 about changing her philosophy about retail (2:14:30)
- Enjoyed his experience at the two retail venues
- Suggests her perspective was great about diversity
- Female perspective of retail
- Jodie understand female perspective and understands the emotional and financial perspective
- Tom Amos ruminates on his experience compared to his fiancee’s opinion
- What keeps people at the center and how long it takes from door to door
- Why do people want to shop?
- John Coe reflects on his background where his father and aunt worked for the J.L. Hudson Company (Detroit’s largest department store)
