Michael Glimcher, chairman and CEO of Glimcher Realty Trust (NYSE: GRT), joined REIT.com for a CEO Spotlight video interview during REITWeek 2014: NAREIT’s Investor Forum, held in New York.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Glimcher Realty trading on the New York Stock Exchange as a public REIT. The company's CEO discussed the significance of this milestone.
“For me, I just can’t believe it’s been 20 years,” he said. “It’s phenomenal for REITs as a whole. I had the opportunity to be at the exchange yesterday and ring the closing bell along with a group of companies celebrating their 20th anniversary. When I think about how sophisticated, how advanced the industry has become from 20 years ago, it’s just tremendous.”
Glimcher described the most transformative move in the company’s 20 years.
“For us, it’s all been about quality,” he said. “Our team is better than ever, our balance sheet is better than ever and our assets are better than ever. So for our investors, the company they are buying into today versus what they were buying into 20 years ago, it’s just a night and day difference.”
Glimcher shared his opinion with regard to the next evolution in malls and retailing over the next decade.
“We see retail moving so rapidly today, more so than ever,” he said. “We talk a lot about ‘the mix’ – why are people leaving their home? Why are they coming to our shopping center? It’s a lot about things you do, versus just things that you buy – entertaining people, going to their spin cycle class, going to get their nails done, going out to eat, playing in the fountain. It’s not just about buying things, but it’s about everything that you do around it. For us, we’ve really been evolving our mix in thinking about how do we get her out of her home and engage her. Not just once a month, but how do we become at the intersection of her daily life?”