Q&A with John Simon

Q&A with John Simon

CEO of Isaac Group Holding LLC

PERSONAL

BIRTH PLACE: Germany. He lived near Paris until he was 8. With his French mother divorced from an American soldier, Simon, his mother and sister moved to Washington, D.C.

EDUCATION: "Majored in engineering in college, but I never quite finished."

AGE: 58

FAMILY: Married, 36 years; son, 30; daughter 25; home in Indian Rocks Beach.

HOW HE ESCAPES: "I love to read history. I'm an avid railroad fan. I'll go out of my way to ride on trains."

READING LIST: "The Civil War," by Shelby Foote; "Rape of Nanking: Forgotten Holocaust of World War II," by Iris Chang.

FAVORITE WEB SITES: E-bay. He looks for railroad memorabilia.

PROFESSIONAL

RESPONSIBILITIES AT TAUBMAN: Involved in more than 40 shopping centers; in charge of Taubman's development projects, including market research, scouting new locations, planning, land acquisition, construction and negotiations with tenants and major department store chains.

TAUBMAN PHILOSOPHY: To be the most dominant upscale center in the market. "We viewed ourselves as retail merchants, not retail landlords."

WHY TEAM UP WITH ISAACS: "It goes back to my roots in Europe and my fundamental love of history and urban settings. I didn't want to be involved in manufacturing a Main Street. I wanted to do the real thing."

WHO FOUND WHOM?: He met one of the Isaacs about six years ago on an airplane. "Over the years we stayed in touch. A year and a half ago, Butch came to me with Bill's ideas and concepts for Sarasota and sought some advice. Every two months, he'd come back and say, 'Here's what we've got.' Taubman considered joining the project, but it wasn't big enough. When Simon retired, he decided to team up with the Isaacs. "This is one of the more exciting projects I've ever worked on," Simon says.

ON DOWNTOWN SARASOTA

TO WHAT WOULD YOU COMPARE IT: Walnut Creek, and La Jolla, Calif. "It does not taste and feel like South Florida with all of the Mediterranean architecture. It's Main Street, USA, with a little bit of a California flair.

WHAT'S NEEDED: An identity. "Downtown Sarasota is a jewel, but it's something that needs to be polished. It's one of the few cities that does not have downtown parking. The Cherry Creek (Colo.) district was 70% vacant until they addressed parking."

CHALLENGES

BIGGEST CONCERNS: "Timing. We're in a race, and we're racing against the outskirts. Right now, it's everybody's game. There's a window of opportunity (to attract the desired retailers). In a year, that window will close. There will be winners and losers. So I feel a time pressure to be able to get in the field and induce the retailers to downtown. If we miss that opportunity, it will be a a long time again for downtown Sarasota. Will downtown again be bypassed?"

WHAT'S AHEAD

LEADING RETAIL TRENDS: "Every 30 seconds, someone in this country turns 50 years old. I'm 58. I'm a baby boomer. I remember what downtowns used to be." That memory among baby boomers has spawned the development of lifestyle centers, what Simon calls "the fake Main Streets." Adds Simon: "Children of boomers grew up only with malls. They're now discovering urban centers, too. Put these two trends together and you have downtowns as a destination."

DEPARTMENT STORES DEAD?: "Lifestyle centers are wonderful if you want a taste of retailing. But if you want a full meal, you'll still go to the regional mall. There are so many lifestyle centers going up, if they don't monitor their critical mass and sustain their uniqueness, they'll fall by the wayside. There's also going to be a lot of redevelopment of Florida's '50s strip malls."