ICSC RECon Student Mentoring Program

Again this year, ICSC's Leadership Development Program will be offering one-on-one mentoring appointments with a variety of industry professionals. The appointments are generally 20-30 minutes in length; the meetings will be held in the Mentoring Offices, set up in the Market Place Mall or at the individual mentor's company booth, depending upon his/her preference.

Please review the biographies below. If you would like to participate in the program, please send an email to Sarah Ritchie, sritchie@icsc.org with your top 4 appointment preferences. Also, include your current resume with the email.

 Please consider these appointments an opportunity to discuss general career strategies, industry developments, and the like. They should not be considered interviews for a potential job or internship position.   

Note, this list of mentors is as of April 26. There will be additional mentors added in the coming days.  For several mentors, only their contact information appears, with bios to be uploaded ASAP.

Questions? Contact Sarah Ritchie, sritchie@icsc.org or 646-728-3490.

James Matanky

James Matanky.  Mr. Matanky is President of the Matanky Realty Group Company and heads the development, redevelopment and brokerage arms of the companies. Mr. Matanky is a board member, and Chairman of the Illinois state committee of the International Council of Shopping Centers, and participates as a panelist for both the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Urban Land Institute. He has worked with the City of Chicago as a mentor for retail redevelopment, and serves on the Chicago Building Department Commissioner’s advisory panel. He is Chairman of the Chicago Stockyard Commission SSA#13. He was also a board member of the Chicago Association of Neighborhood Development Organizations and headed their real estate committee, has served as a principal for a day in the Chicago public schools and was an officer of the West Humboldt Park Development Council. Mr. Matanky is a Vice President of the JCCs of Illinois and chairs the operations committee, he is a past Chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago Circle Council and a serves on the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed the Wexner Heritage Foundation program in 2008. Mr. Matanky was honored as a recipient of the Chicago Neighborhood Developer of the year Award in 2000 for his work in Humboldt Park and again in 2006 for his work in Garfield Park. He was also honored as a recipient of the Chicago Good Neighbor Award for his development on the west side. Mr. Matanky received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Illinois, College of Law in 2007. Mr. Matanky graduated with honors from the University of Illinois with degrees in finance, accounting and law and earned an honors graduate degree in law from Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.

James Matanky
President
Matanky Realty Group
200 N La Salle St. #2350
Chicago, IL 60601-1044
Phone: (312) 337-1001
Email: jmatanky@matanky.com

Jason Richter

Jason Richter.  Richter is Vice President of Real Estate and Construction at Perfumania, the nation’s largest fragrance specialty retailer operating over 350 stores in 36 states in addition to Puerto Rico and the USVI.　　He Oversees and directs domestic and international site selection for new locations and our existing portfolio of enclosed mall, outlet and high street stores.

Over the last 10 years he has worked in every facet of retail real estate as both a Landlord and Tenant.　 His development background comes from one of the most formidable retail investors, Thor Equities, where he worked on a multibillion dollar real estate portfolio. Richter had been with the firm for over 6 years before transitioning to become a retailer.

The past 4 years have been spent as head of real estate for two companies spanning across 7 brands. Accomplishments consist of over 500 transactions including the acquisition and restructuring of an 80 store chain from the second largest athletic retailer in the United States. Additionally, he is currently working on Perfumania’s Candian expansion. 

Due to Jason’s contribution and involvement in the retail industry, The International Council of Shopping Centers has appointed Jason Richter as ICSC New York/Northern New Jersey State Director for a second term this past May where he will represent the interests of owners, developers, investors, marketers and other retail specialists across the states. His various ICSC roles include serving on the annual New York Conference Deal Making Committee since 2006 where he was Sponsorship Chairman from 2008-2011. Richter often participates as a panelist for the International Council of Shopping Centers, has worked with their mentor　program for retail development, most recently served as chairman for the Next Generation Advisory Group and was inducted into the ICSC NG Emeritus Group this May.

Jason Richter
Vice President of Real Estate
Perfumania
630 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Phone: 212-878-3727
Email: jrichter@perfumania.com

Taylor Chess

Taylor Chess. Chess is Senior Vice President, Retail for The Peterson Companies. As head of the Retail Development department, Chess oversees 5 million square feet of existing retail which is owned, managed and leased by The Peterson Companies. Of Peterson’s 1,000 acres of developable land, Chess currently oversees 6 projects totaling in over 250 acres that are in various phases of development. Chess also served for 8 years as the Senior Vice President of Investments at Regency Centers, where he managed the D.C., Boston and Philadelphia Investment teams and oversaw Regency’s new developments in the Northeast. While at Regency, Chess led an investment team that developed over 2 million square feet of retail projects valued at over $250 million, as well as over $270 million in acquisitions.

Throughout his career, Taylor has been extremely involved in both professional organizations and local community charities. Taylor served as ICSC’s State Director of Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia for 4 years. He serves on the Board of Joe Gibb’s Youth For Tomorrow, United Way Regional Advisory Board and acts as a mentor to real estate students through ICSC mentoring programs at RECON. He is also an annual guest speaker at GWU Real Estate Program.

Taylor attended California State University, Northridge.

Taylor Chess
Senior vice President - Retail
The Peterson Companies
12500 Fair Lakes Circle
Fairfax, VA 22033
Phone: (703) 631-7520
Email: tchess@petersoncos.com

Gordon Sudbeck

Gordon J. Sudbeck. Sudbek is Vice President, Leasing and Property Development for Noddle Development Company, a division of the Noddle Companies, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. The Noddle Companies develops, redevelops, leases and manages its own portfolio and also performs these services for a few select properties owned by industry colleagues. A graduate of Wayne State College, Wayne, NE, Gordon has more than twenty-eight years of experience in the shopping center industry, ranging from retail sales and store management to shopping center operations, leasing and development. In his current position with the Noddle Companies, he directs transactional and legal activities for a portfolio of 50-plus properties that are primarily anchored open air shopping centers, both in metropolitan areas and also in micropolitan county seat and suburban locations throughout the Midwest. Since the early `80s, Gordon has been an active member of ICSC. He has served as Nebraska-Iowa Operations Chair and as ICSC's Central Division Operations Chair, twice served as Nebraska-Iowa Government Relations Chair, Nebraska-Iowa State Director and most recently was appointed as ICSC's Alliance Program Co-Chair for the Central Division. A frequent panelist for ICSC at local and state meetings and regional Idea Exchanges, in 2002 Gordon was instrumental in bringing ICSC's Alliance Program to rural Nebraska and currently co-chairs a partnership between ICSC and NACo (National Association of Counties). He is a graduate of the International Council of Shopping Centers Management Institute and has earned the ICSC professional designations of SCSM/SCMD/CLS (Senior Certified Shopping Center Manger/ Senior Certified Marketing Director/Certified Leasing Specialist). In addition to his professional career and volunteer activities, Mr. Sudbeck was elected in earlier years to local political office as a Natural Resources District Commissioner. He is married to Kim Jones-Sudbeck, CMD, currently serving as Marketing Director in Omaha for Red Development. They have two sons, Robb and Tom.

Gordon Sudbeck
Vice President
Noddle Companies
2285 South 67th St., Suite 250
Omaha, NE 68106
Phone: (402) 496-1616
Fax: (402) 496-6250
Email: gordon@noddlecompanies.com

Thomas Phillips

Thomas J. Phillips. Phillips is Chair of Brown Rudnick's Real Estate Practice Group, has been practicing commercial real estate and land use law since 1987. He has counseled owners, developers, landlords, tenants, lenders and investors in a variety of property acquisitions and sales, development and permitting projects, leases, debt and equity financings, workouts/restructurings and other sophisticated real estate transactions spanning virtually all asset classes. He has particular experience working with retail and mixed use properties and is the immediate past State Director for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) for Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Tom has been recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and in Woodward/White’s Best Lawyers in America. Prior to joining Brown Rudnick, Tom was a partner in the Boston law firm of Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar, where he served as Real Estate Department Chair.


Thomas Phillips
Chair, Real Estate Practice
Brown Rudnick
One Financial Center
Boston, MA 02111
Phone: (617) 856-8383

Email: tphillips@brownrudnick.com

Brian Zelman

Brian Zelman. Zelman’s experience across different asset classes and brokerage work on behalf of successful developers, investors and tenants has enabled him to take leadership roles within ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers). His involvement in ICSC has facilitated high level relationships with numerous national retailers and many of the largest developers and retail real estate holders in the US.

Brian recently joined CNS Real Estate to continue his tenant representation services, land and investment brokerage and investment sales. Prior to working with CNS Real Estate, Brian was Director of Real Estate at Eagle Rock Retail. In his role at Eagle Rock Retail, Brian was primarily responsible for the leasing for Front Street District in Downtown Hartford. Brian signed a deal with The Capital Grille for the anchor restaurant position in that project. This was a very important project for the City of Hartford and had been vacant for two years.

Brian exclusively represents multiple regional and national retailers in their expansion throughout CT and MA including Ginza Restaurant Group, Dr. Dental, Five Guys Burger & Fries, Noodles & Company, Worldwide Golf Inc/Golfer’s Warehouse, Buffalo Wild Wings and Burger King.

A franchisee of Five Guys Burger & Fries hired Brian to assist in the acquisition of redevelopment opportunities and land for their Central CT expansion. Brian assembled multiple residential parcels for the ground up development of a free standing prototype store. This location achieved #1 in sales for 2010 out of 685+ stores. They worked together to sourced additional ground up development and redevelopment opportunities throughout three counties in CT. Brian listed for sale and procured a buyer for the purchase of all their operating units and additional development rights in CT.

Prior to his work at Eagle Rock Retail, Brian was a partner in Broder Commercial, a West Hartford based commercial brokerage firm. While at Broder Commercial, Brian brokered the sale of several multi-million dollar investment properties in Hartford County. He represented the sellers and procured buyers in transactions that were complex due to environmental issues, 1031 exchange requirements and title issues. Brian represented a local developer in the acquisition and assemblage of a brownfield site and residential parcel for the rezoning and development of a 30,000sf LEED certified medical office building. Brian also assembled an 80 acre working farm and 40 acre parcel for the development of a 100+ unit residential subdivision on behalf of a local developer.

In his role as ICSC CT Next Generation Chairperson, Brian has been on the planning committees for the ICSC New England Idea Exchange and the ICSC New England Retail Connection. During his tenure as ICSC CT Next Generation Chairperson, Brian has led and participated in the planning of over 20 Next Gen events throughout the State of CT. Brian has been nominated to serve as ICSC CT State Director and will begin his first term in May of 2013.

Brian studied general coursework at University of Connecticut and University of Massachusetts and was previously a State Certified Emergency Medical Technician in CT. Brian resides in West Hartford, CT with his wife and daughter.

Brian Zelman

Director of Real Estate
Zelman Real Estate
28 North Main Street
West Hartford, CT 06107
Phone: (860) 269-6960
Email:

brian@zelmanre.com