Nicole Shiman - Managing Director, EDENS

Nicole Shiman is Managing Director and Regional Head of EDENS Florida, where she oversees one of the most important open-air retail portfolios in the state and leads all new acquisition and development activity, from Fifth & Alton on South Beach to Downtown Palm Beach Gardens.

She joined us over a Maestro Dobel 50 Cristalino Paloma, and the conversation went down just as smooth. We trace her path from growing up in Toronto to the Richard Ivey School of Business, consulting at BCG in Toronto, New York, and Miami, an MBA at Harvard, and deal-making at 13th Floor Investments before EDENS tapped her in 2016 to run Florida. Along the way we get into why everyone who wrote retail's obituary was wrong, how she picks the restaurants and brands she bets on, and what "enriching community through human engagement" actually means when you're underwriting a shopping center.

And because nobody runs a statewide portfolio alone, we close on the person behind the deals: a proud Canadian, a mom of three, and someone who still believes a great shopping center should feel like the center of a neighborhood.

Pour yourself a Paloma and settle in. This one's a fun one.

Want to dive deeper into Miami’s commercial real estate scene?

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Connect with the Hosts:

• Felipe Azenha 
• Ben Hoffman 

Our Partners & Sponsors

🏢 Studio Space: A special thank you to Büro coworking space for hosting us! 

Proudly sponsored by:

• Top of Mind PR
• Vizzda
• Vinya

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

He's hooked us up with a bunch of really cool guests. Shout out Lyle. Yeah, we love Lyle.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

He's the he and he's the reason I work at Eatons. Oh, really? Which maybe isn't for the consumption of the whole world, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Oh, we're recording already, so it is for the consumption of the world. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

I gotcha. That's the first gotcha moment.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Well, cool, Nicole. Thanks for joining us. We're super stoked to have you here. Um, thanks for coming down from uh from America to Miami. Anytime. And you took the bright line. So cheers. You can you can chill right there. We're gonna cheers you. Cheers, guys. Cheers. Um working. And uh we want to also thank you for choosing. What are we drinking today? We're drinking Palomas with Krista Krista Krista Lino. Keep a classy.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Maestro Nobel. It looks like a hookah bottle.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

It does look like a bong, doesn't it? That's it. That's too. Um it looks like my uh my roommate's bong from college.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Yeah, it looks like your coffee table.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Um but uh shout out to Vinya because uh they're the ones that are supplying the liquor for us. So uh thanks for picking this.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

And what are we drinking? What's a paloma?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

It's uh a little tequila with uh um juice. Yeah, it's good. Uh good choice.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

A little summer summer selection.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, it's great. So uh Vinya is in Kibiscayne. You should go check that out since you're a retail person too. They got like a it's like a restaurant, wine bar, um really cool concept. Awesome. Um, so thanks for joining us, Nicole. We're uh we're psyched to have you. We've we've been wanting to have you on the podcast. Um, Lyle Stern, one of our biggest fans, also is like, you need to get Nicole on, and uh and here we are. Um happy to be here.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Thank you for watching.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

And it's your first podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

This is my first podcast. A bit of a rookie here.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yeah, we're not gonna go easy on you. It's all on the record, and uh it's all on the record here. And then uh thanks for coming down from uh from Boca on the Bright Line, earning some serious points being the urbanist, coming down on a train.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Walked from the bright line.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

You walked from the bright line too.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Did Miami slap you on the in the face on the way over here?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

It was great. I had to take off my blazer, it was a little toasty, but a true urbanite over here. It's hotter than Boca.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Is that the same? Is that the same as Boca?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

The heat? Yeah, yeah, it's hot everywhere, baby.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Um, and so uh we're we're and you're getting back on the train, so we're gonna get drunk today. It's Thursday afternoon. You have no excuse. This is the first time many cocktails, I think.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

We're only a block away.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

I know. Um, so welcome to uh Bureau, welcome to the podcast, and welcome to Miami. Thanks, guys. Great to be here. Yeah, we uh so you I know you've listened to a couple of the podcasts, but this is really a podcast about you. Uh you and I met uh at 13th floor. Um, we've probably known each other for about almost 10 years. Can you believe that?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Flies.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

I know. And uh you pitched 13th floor to like that's back when we were working together, probably. Yeah. Around that time period.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

So we went to we had connected with Arnaud and we went to go show him kind of like I think it was like we're showing like prototypes early on, and Arnaud pulled you in and a couple other people from 13th floor, and you kind of you guys gave us quite a bit of time to to bang that thing around. So um thank you for like you were like also you thought it was so cool what we were doing, and uhhead of your time.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

I know. Look at this now. AI is all like proving everything you said.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

But uh yeah, it's uh you know, it's it's it's cool to to reconnect with you. Um, and uh you're now with Eden's, so uh, but we want to go way back uh because you're you're from Toronto, Canadian, Canadian. Look at that.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

You grew up in Toronto Canada World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

I was just there like two weeks ago. Caught a Jays game with the roof up. Oh, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Jays are all the rage, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Well, if they won't run the bandwagon now.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

They had a big, big season, they had a big season last year. Tough loss, but tough loss, but yeah, grew up in Toronto, Canadian out.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

And your your parents are from where?

SPEAKER_00 4:25

My parents are Canadian as well. Okay, grew up in a outside of Toronto in a small town called London, Ontario, with my mom and my dad Hamilton. Okay, two small towns outside Toronto.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

And they're like Canadians, like born and raised?

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Not my parents, yes. My parents are both first generation Canadian.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Okay, where were your grandparents from?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Grandparents are from Poland and Czechoslovakia.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

And uh Toronto's really part of the Midwest. Like it's the same. I grew up in Minnesota, it's all the same. It's very similar.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Yeah, it's like it was a big immigrant community, um, a lot of diversity. It was a great place to grow up.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Yeah. And uh what did your what did your grandparents do?

SPEAKER_00 5:05

So my interestingly, my my grandfather was in the real estate business. So there is a little real estate in a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

In Toronto?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

In London, Ontario, outside of Toronto.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

What was he doing?

SPEAKER_00 5:18

He was he so so all four of my grandparents are Holocaust survivors. They came to Canada and really started a new life.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

What year did they come to Canada?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

They came in the in the forties, fifties, late forties.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Late forties. Yeah. Early 50s, probably. Yeah. And because uh the war sort of ended in 49. Is that when it ended?

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Roughly. Yeah. Yeah. So they were stayed in Europe for a couple of years and then made their way to Canada. Fuck.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

When they uh talking about my maternal grandfather, when when he came to Canada, you know, they didn't really speak the language. They were, you know, refugees from a war. And um they he started by really getting into the grocery business. He he owned a little deli, a little Italian deli. And he ran that business for a number of years. And as he, you know, made some profits, he would put those aside and he started really investing in real estate. It started with single-family homes, turned into duplexes, really small-scale stuff, and then eventually pivoted from the the deli business into um the real estate business. And he ultimately grew a business called Z Group, which got into the development business, um, single-family homes, multifamily industrial in this town outside of Toronto called London. And uh yeah, grew grew a big real estate business.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Um so there, so so you that's where you kind of get the the little retail piece and and the real estate piece too. I mean, he's got a deli, it's retail.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Like I I guess some of these things are in the blood. Yeah. Uh yeah. I mean, look, growing up, the myself and my siblings, none of us sort of were really involved in the business. We were exposed to the business a little bit. We always had an interest in real estate because of that exposure, but we were given strict marching orders from our parents, my brothers and I, to go and build our own empires. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

And so how so you're uh you're how many siblings are there?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I'm the youngest of three. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Two little brothers. Oh, that explains why you're so cool because you just had you just had brothers just giving you shit the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Yes, probably probably one of the byproducts.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Yeah. Growing up with brothers will make it tough. Oh, yeah. You're right. Like it's uh she it's like another level of crazy. Oh, totally. She gotta keep up. Yeah. Yeah. Um so and then uh, and so was your were your parents in involved in the business as well?

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Um, so my dad, my dad was a physician, a doctor, not in the real estate business.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

My mom was what kind of doctor was he?

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Child psychiatrist.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Okay. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

All right. Did he parent? Did you that ever come out in parenting? Did he like say we like make you how do you feel about that? Is it jet on matrix?

SPEAKER_00 8:15

He did a good job of separating business and family.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

It'd be irresistible to just kind of like pry in for a minute.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Yeah, no, he I I think he did a good job of of segmenting those things. It never we never really felt like that's good. We were being raised by a child psychiatrist. But maybe he was just exceedingly good at his job. That's probably sounds like it. Yeah. Um and my mom actually w was in the real estate business, uh actually not in the family business, but in just working in real estate in Canada, coming out of getting her MBA. She, you know, shout out to my mom, was uh sounds like a badass too. Badass. Well, and my grandmother, by the way, also was was a real badass um in the real estate business too, collected rent, knocked on doors, all the things. Um, so my mom worked in real estate as well before having three kids and did so outside of the family business context, and then has worked as well a little bit in the family business context too.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Cool. So you grew up in New London? Toronto. Downtown or Toronto.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

I grew up in in an area called Forest Hill, okay, which is the city.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

That's like north, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

It's like at Bathurst and Eglinton. So it's uh a little north of downtown, but proximate.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

I have a hotel in the Annex called the Annex. Nice. Do you know the Annex Hotel?

SPEAKER_00 9:28

I my brother used to live in the Annex. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

It's on Brunswick. Brunswick is awesome. And Bloor. Yeah. So I've been there a lot, but I love Toronto.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

That's a great that's a great iconic cross street. The Annex is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Yeah, just down the street from uh all the fancy stuff in Yorkville and but far enough away to be chill.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Yeah, it's it's a it's a great city.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

What's the what's the what's the vibe of the neighborhood you grew up in? It was is it's like suburb, is it city?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

It was it was it was I would say like one of the nearer in suburban communities to the downtown core. So you know it was walkable to Eglinton, which had you could walk to coffee and have a retail experience. So it was a neighborhood. It was a neighborhood access, really easy access to walk to the subway, super easy to get downtown.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

It's almost like I feel like I I don't know the area that well, but my sense is like a suburb connected to the city almost.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Correct. Like you have nice streets. I wouldn't even call it a suburb. I mean, today with all the suburban crawl that's happened, it's really in Phill, like it's considered living in Phill. Um it was a very uh urban-like experience.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

How long was the train ride into the center of the city?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

I mean, you could get to downtown Toronto in 20 minutes, 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Yeah, so you're in the city.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

So I I like to think I had sort of an urban sensibility. Yeah, absolutely. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

I mean, I think you know, as people growing up in that kind of environment, like probably not when you're growing up, but like, you know, when you look back, you're like, oh, it's you know, like kind of formed a lot of the way I think, right? Like it works so well that I I live near a subway station, I live in a walkable neighborhood, I can go grab coffee, like it kind of forms you like, this is really cool, and this is something you know we should probably replicate in other in other places.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Totally. I and in moving to Florida, which obviously is a very different landscape than the environment I grew up in, and it's changing. That was one of my biggest observations was you know, if you want to live in a place where you can go walk and get a cup of coffee, uh, you know, 10-15 years ago, there weren't that many neighborhoods where you could do that inside Florida. Um, but it's been neat seeing that change and evolve.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

What were you into growing up as a kid? What were you into? Any hobbies that stand out?

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Or I was a big athlete.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Okay. Oh, I think as a kid.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

As big as an athlete you can be when you're five, three.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

See, tomboy with two with two uh brothers. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, big athletes, basketball, soccer. I even had a stint in hardball as the only gal on the team.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Short-lived. Volleyball.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

But sports was a big part of my of my life.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

What was your favorite sport to play?

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Soccer and basketball.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Yeah. Did you play in college?

SPEAKER_00 12:08

I didn't. I, you know, I I think I I rec started to recognize in high school the limits of my, you know, physical height.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Yeah. But you can be quick.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Yeah, yeah. You could have some hustle and speed.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Were you a good athlete?

SPEAKER_00 12:22

I mean, if you're playing different sports, you're I was, I mean, granted, please note having gone to a Jewish day school, high school is an important footnote here, but I was athlete of the year. That's awesome. As far as Jewish athletes go, you're at the top. I love it. It's great. It's all about your concept. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Hey, it counts. Um, cool. And then uh, so you went to a Jewish school in in Toronto?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

I did.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Yeah. What and what was uh what were your favorite subjects?

SPEAKER_00 12:53

You know, I've always been inclined towards sort of like the business subject set. And I think in addition to sports, the other thing I always had an interest in was sort of entrepreneurship and starting little small businesses.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Yeah, were you starting stuff in high school?

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Like what was some of the things that we're gonna do actually when I was in elementary school, there was a whole bunch of really small businesses that I started, very small.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Like what?

SPEAKER_00 13:17

So, you know, when kids started going to summer camp, by example, I think this was like summer grade three or summer grade four. I started a business where I would print labels because you know, you'd write no you write letters home to your parents and you'd need a return address or you'd need the address of your parents. So I I I printed addresses for people who are going to summer camp. Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

How much did you charge them?

unknown 13:42

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

It was a brilliant model because I had no cost of goods sold. You know, I did it at my home computer, my parents bought the sticky. Unlimited ROI. It was a great structure. Um, but yeah, a couple of things.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Subsidized by the family, by their parents, because it should be an entrepreneur experience. So you started doing that in like elementary school?

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Yeah, like third or fourth grade. And and if if somebody would have asked me in elementary school or high school, like what do you want to be when you grow up? I you know, my my answer was a businesswoman.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

You know, missile unclear what type of businesswoman, but a business woman.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Were you were your brothers into business too, or no?

SPEAKER_00 14:19

They are both in business. Yes, they are. Uh the three of us are all doing lots of different types of business. I'm on the real estate side, one brother's on the tech side, one is more on the you know, entrepreneurial, medical, miscellaneous business side. But yeah, we're all we're all in business.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Cool. What uh what motivated that? Do you remember? Like what what why you wanted to earn money? Or was you fascinated by the whole process of it?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

You know, I I think some some people are just predisposed to you know wanting to create new things and comfortable hustling and comfortable with people and making something from nothing. I I think that probably maybe was the justice of it, and and and it was fun.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

That's awesome. Were you a good student?

SPEAKER_00 15:08

I was a good student.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Yeah. Math? What was your what were your subjects?

SPEAKER_00 15:12

I did well. I I did well in math, I did well in English.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

It was just easy.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

No, no, no, I was I was a hard worker. Yeah, still to this day.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Did it come easy to you, Matt Math? What what came easier to you though?

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Yeah, I did well in math. Yeah. Did well in history and the English subjects. And I think I was a little bit less inclined in the science route.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

And more inclined in in writing, reading, argument construction, that type of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Got it. Um, and then uh any other jobs in high school that you did?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I refed soccer. Oh, nice. You know, you're gonna manage those crazy parents.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Yeah, oh shit. That's uh that's like serious people skills right there.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

I ref soccer.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

But I feel I feel like the the parents in Canada are probably a little kinder than the parents here in Miami. You would think. I don't know. I don't know. Are all parents crazy? Uh people up north are pretty chill. Yeah, but you there's always crazy people. I see some crazy shit on my son's soccer too. I bet you do.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

So, yeah, soccer ref, some small entrepreneurial pursuits. Yeah, those are the big ones.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yeah. So you graduate high school. Did you know where you wanted to go to college?

SPEAKER_00 16:26

So in Canada, it's a little bit of a different setup than in the US, in that there's just fewer colleges, which makes it a little more straightforward in terms of you know where you land. You know, as I as I mentioned, I sort of had an interest and passion for going into business. And there was a handful of schools that specialized in that. And so I applied to those schools and was really fortunate to get in and ended up going to a program called the Richard Ivey School of Business, which is uh at the University of Western Ontario. It's very similar to the way like the Wharton program is structured at Penn or the Ross program is structured at Michigan, where you do two years of open liberal arts and then two years of specialized business discipline study. And then coming out of those programs, a lot of a lot of the kids go to investment banking or consulting or private equity. Um, so I went to that sort of program in Canada in a in a in in a small town London, Ontario, where my family's from, actually. So that was neat. I had I had some cousins who live there, and my grandmother was there. Um how far is that from Ontario? Or from Toronto a couple hours. Okay. Not too far.

unknown 17:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

And do you still you have any inkling at what kind of kind of business you want to go into at this point, or is it more just businesswoman is the the vector?

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Just just business queen. Business queen. I love it. Um it was it was it was really at Ivy where I started, you know, getting exposure to you know, marketing, operations, finance, organizational behavior, all the different disciplines out there. Um and in my junior year.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Which one was your favorite subject in business school?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

I I liked finance, operations, actually, like the harder skills versus the marketing, organizational behavior stuff. I think really I think all of it is interesting. And to be successful, probably in any real business setting, you really have to have an understanding of it all. Um But I I I went into management consulting coming out of my junior year as an opportunity really just to get a business boot camp exposure, you know, get an opportunity to dive into something and drown a little and learn and this was an intern, you said? Internship.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Business with BCG at the time?

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Okay, perfect, cool.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yes, Boston Consulting Group. And so you got an internship while you were at college?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

But then you went uh you graduated and you went on to work with them. Yes. And how long did you work at BCG? And were did you go? Were you working at BCG in Toronto or I know you bounced to New York at some point and then came to Miami with them, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah. So when I so I had a couple other jobs pre-BCG in in college that were early exposures.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Like what were you doing?

SPEAKER_00 19:16

To business. Before BCG, I spent one summer working in the corporate office of Cineplex Um Famous Players. It's it's the equivalent of AMC or the largest theaters in the US. Uh-huh. I th I was in their marketing department, largely because that was the opportunity. So I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

A subject that you did not like.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

But it was that was my first true corporate experience. Was working, was working at the head office of of Cineplex, which was neat. Um and then after that summer, I applied to work in management consulting and got a job at BCG. That was between my junior and senior year in their Toronto office, which was this, you know, awesome, awesome opportunity to land. You know, there's just they don't have a ton of spots and opens tons of doors, and just it's a real rigorous boot camp like situation where you're really thrown in.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

But what is management consultant like? What do you what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 20:14

So back then, and I'm assuming a lot of this is going to change with AI and all the ways in which the world's changed since I was a consultant. But but back then, you know, we you'd get hired in small teams by various Fortune 500 companies. You know, if Walmart, by example, wants to open up a new market, expand to India, whatever it may be, they may hire a BCGO or a McKinsey to evaluate that decision point and collect a bunch of data and run a bunch of analysis and speak to people at the company and do market research and make a recommendation around whether to enter that market, how to enter that market, the considerations in entering that market, the challenges, opportunities, et cetera. And so what was neat was that at a pretty young age, like I think I was 20, I was maybe yeah, I think I was 19 or 20, you're you're in a boardroom with really senior members of executive teams. And you know, you're you're having to ramp up really quickly on new industries. So you may be on consumer packaged goods, you know, in your summer, and then you join full-time and you're in pharmaceuticals or you're in, you know, some other sector.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

What was your first gig with them?

SPEAKER_00 21:25

My first gig was in was a project in Chicago for a company um that sold wine, which was a good first gig, actually. Yeah, right. It was a lot of fun.

unknown 21:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

And what what what were they doing? What what was what was your consulting role for this company?

SPEAKER_00 21:41

They were looking at acquiring another business. And we were sort of looking at how would you integrate those businesses or were there cost synergies, you know, were there overlapping responsibilities, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Were samples as part of this package?

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Well, I wasn't even I it wasn't legal to drink in the in the US at the time, so it was a little dicey at the closing.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Tricking age in Canada. 18, right, isn't it or 19? 19. 19. See, it's so much more forward-thinking than us.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Yeah, it's true. That's very cool. Um, and and and is that what you worked on as an intern that with the wine thing?

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Yeah, that was that was the first gig as an intern, and then um got an offer to return full time and after graduation joined them full-time and spent a couple years in the Toronto office working across lots of different sectors. Worked in pharmaceuticals, worked in um consumer packaged goods, sort of did a lot of travel and worked across a bunch of different industries.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

And what what year is this?

SPEAKER_00 22:37

So I graduated college 2008.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

So this is like 28 to 2008 to 2010, 2011.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

All right. And so you worked you were in Toronto for a couple of years, and then you make your move to New York.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yes. You guys have done your research.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Oh, no, Claude did it other than solid. It's fucking spectacular. Like we're like, Claude, pull up all the dirt on Nicole, and it just fucking, it's like 10 pages of shit. Like it's amazing, Nicole. Went deep. It went deep. Um, so what happens in New York? What do you so you leave Toronto? Like, is there a promotion to go to New York?

SPEAKER_00 23:16

So the move to New York was actually a personal move, not a uh Were you chasing a boyfriend? I I'm happy to report he's now my husband, and we have three wonderful children. But you know, we we uh my boyfriend at the time, Michael, we had done a bunch of long distance and he actually where did you meet your better half? I we met at at summer camp.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Okay, oh wow. Like when you were like 13 or 14?

SPEAKER_00 23:41

I like 16.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Dang.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

But yeah, yeah, yeah, wow in Canada.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

That's awesome. Dang. Summer camp romance came through. All right.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

Yeah, I didn't quite think this podcast would take that spin that turn, but yeah. We're just getting started here. So I I made the move to New York because, you know, for personal reasons, wanting to we we we'd done a lot of long distance and wanted to find a spot where we could both work. And BCG obviously had a huge presence in New York.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

And he was working in New York at the time?

SPEAKER_00 24:12

He was doing his residency.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Oh, okay. He's a doctor. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

And so I made the move to New York, but it was had great career implications too, and got promoted while I was there and had an opportunity to work on really big US clients, which was cool, and um and got the opportunity to live in the city. How long were you in the city for? I lived in New York just under two years. Okay. What part? Midtown and Upper East. All right. Probably the two least cool parts of the city, but it was convenient.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Yeah, Midtown's like you're still you're there. Yeah. Are you rooting for the Knicks? Come on, you can't say you're rooting for San Antonio. Are you a Knicks fan? I grew up in New York. Like, of course. Huge win last night. I know. Big win. I actually listen. I'm not that great of a Knicks fan because at halftime I'm like, this game is done. I wake up in the morning like they fucking won. I'm like, how is this even possible? You're not a real Knicks fan. And I'm not a real Knicks fan. I mean, listen, I've been in Miami for a long time. Like, I'll probably like swing more towards Miami at this point, but you know, I grew up with the Knicks.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Um, so I got a roof with the Raptors, but in if not Raptors, yeah, I can get on the next bandwagon. Please. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

San Antonio, come on now. Um, all right. So New York for two years. And then had you been to Miami before?

SPEAKER_00 25:32

I had vis yes. I mean, I had visited Miami many, many times as a as a good Torontonian. Of course. Having spent many winters in in Miami. And my grandmother had a place in Miami.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Where?

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Sunny Isles.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Okay. So spent some time in sunny aisles. Yeah. So you already had a little affinity to Miami. Totally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

And uh always loved the sunshine.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

But had never, you know, formally lived or worked in Miami at that point.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Um and so your husband finishes his residency there in Miami. Okay. Oh, in Miami.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

So he goes, he did a year in New York, uh, and I was there for that year as well. And then he went back to UM to finish residency.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Oh, okay. And that's that's how you end up transferring with BCG to Miami.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

I did. I in between I went to business school. So I took a couple years and got my MBA and then made the move to Miami.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

And so you went to business school at Harvard? I did. So you were living in Boston. But were you full-time and not working for BCG? Full time. Full time. So you took a little break from BCG, went to Harvard Business School, and then went back to BCG?

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Okay. And so They they liked you that much, huh? That they invited you back.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

They have this very nice program where if they like you, they invite you back and they pay for your MBA.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

Oh fuck you.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

So it was, you know, obviously that was a great opportunity. That said, I sort of knew as I departed BCG and went to get my MBA that long term I I likely wasn't going to stay in consulting. And consulting was just an awesome place to start my career. And it was a total boot camp working 90 hour weeks, traveling, working with super smart people, solving interesting things.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

You're really working 90 hour weeks?

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Dang. How long did you do that for?

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Three years. Fuck.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

That's a fucking grind, huh? How does that even work?

SPEAKER_02 27:32

It's definitely a great comparator because it makes pretty much everything else that comes after it seems super easy.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

But it's similar to investment banking.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

What's an a what's an average day look like on one of those weeks?

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Well, I'm speaking back in the day. Like kids these days, I don't know if they're clocking 90 hours. You're definitely going to tell your kids about the city. When we walked up the hill both ways, exactly 90 hours.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

That's what I want to hear.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

So, you know, you'd get in the office at you know 8 or 8:30 and you would work until some nights midnight. And and you may leave the office, but you'd work, you'd work most nights. And I was on a plane every Monday and every Thursday, traveling every week to the client site. So we you're working along hours and and cranking, but you get amazing exposure in those years. And you're you know, you're you're putting in the time and you're learning a lot of you're learning a lot.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

I mean, what an incredible experience, right? You're like you're sitting in these like meetings with high-level executives and just probably a sponge, just like, let me listen more than I speak and let me figure this out to help these people, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Completely, completely. And so it was great. And and it, I think the greatest gift I got from BCG and the training was this ability to have confidence solving problems because you'd walk into a new client or a new situation and you were young and you really didn't know anything about the industry, but it it really taught a skill set of how do you break down a problem into manageable pieces and work through it in just a practical, rational way, which I think has been a skill set that's hugely valuable in real estate and really in anything you do.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

How big were these teams uh that you worked with on B uh at BCG with these companies? Did it vary the size?

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Vary depending on the size and the engagement, but it could be anything from a small team of like five or six people to like a much larger team if you're dealing with a big transformation or something of that nature. Um, but it was it was a great experience in that regard. But I didn't I didn't see myself staying in consulting long term or forever. And so in going back to business school, a big part of that choice was to really explore what was next and really explore where I wanted to dig in over the long term.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

And what what what was the deal with BCG? Like, did you have to they paid for your school and then you had to spend another couple years with them? Is was that the deal?

SPEAKER_00 29:52

That was the deal. Yeah, two years. Two years.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

And I did return to BCG for one. And I did end up leaving after one and pursuing real estate.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

Okay. What got you, what got the hook in real estate?

SPEAKER_00 30:05

So when I got when I got to HBS, I was really focused on figuring out, you know, what sector do I want to focus on, what's next after consulting. And I it was, I think, a combination of, you know, being exposed to a bunch of peers in my class and professors and speakers who came in and really getting broad-based exposure to real estate that really piqued my interest. Um, having grown up in a family that was around real estate, it was something that was felt logical, comfortable, and and had always seemed interesting. But I really had never formally or professionally worked in real estate prior to business school. Um, and then that mapped with I had a specific um goal of making it to South Florida.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

Because your husband was here?

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Because my because my my my, I guess, then fiance was was based in Florida. And we had sort of made the decision that we were going to be around one of our families, and my family was in Toronto, and it was a big task to become a doctor in Canada when you're when you're licensed in the US. And so it was logical for me to stay in the US. Um, so we so we decided Miami was a good destination. And in looking at this was already, you know, 10, 15 years ago, the the opportunity set, which obviously is such a different landscape today. But at that time, you know, there were only a handful of sectors in South Florida or Miami that were really, I would say, dominant and presented great upside from a career perspective. And real estate was one. And so I think part it was part sort of passion and part exposure and part an interest and part practical, that it was a sector that you could really be successful in and grow a real career and do something interesting in while staying local.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

I got dragged to Miami by my wife too. I was in Minnesota.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Look, we both got brought to Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

And we did I did long distance for two years and then I came here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

And I'm here.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

Yeah. I've learned to love it. Good. There you go. What was your first impression coming down? By the way, hold on, did you have a job with 13th floor before you came down?

SPEAKER_00 32:04

So I I worked with 13th floor in my summer between first and second year business school.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

And I made a very concerted effort to come down here and meet all the real estate shops and figure out where to land. And I would say like no recruiting was happening at Harvard from Miami at that time because no one from Harvard wanted to move to Miami. Um, 2012.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

Okay. Yeah, that's like the that's like the bottom. That's like when the everything bottomed out after 08.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

So you're you do an internship um with 13th floor uh between your first and second year, and you go back to Boston, and then you come back to Miami to work for BCG, right? And after a year, you're like, all right, let me go back to 13th floor. How did you get connected with Arnaud in 13th floor?

SPEAKER_00 32:58

So we met, we were connected broadly through the HBS network. He's also a grad, uh a bunch of years ahead of me. And when I was coming down here to just understand the real estate landscape and opportunity set, 13th floor went, got on the radar, and I sat with those guys and liked what they were doing. It was very early days. Yeah in 2012.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

I mean, Arno started a company. It was a bird road office?

SPEAKER_00 33:22

It was the Bird Road office.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

I met you in 2015 or six, I think it was 2016 in Brickle, wasn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

So you started with 13th floor what year? Like 2012?

SPEAKER_00 33:33

20 full time. I think it was 2014.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Okay. Maybe. Yeah. And what did uh Arno have you doing over there?

SPEAKER_00 33:42

You know, in the summer it was awesome. It was uh first of all, the shop was a lot smaller at that time. It was it was after, it was in the first fund when I joined as an intern. And because of the size of the shop and the nature of the opportunity set in 2012, everything and anything. So everything from they had a they had a portfolio of homes in Homestead that was a legacy investment that they were determining what to do with. So I sort of looked at that and made some recommendations around how to handle I'll call the asset management of it and/or disposition. Um, we looked at New Deals, underwriting, sourcing, structuring, market research, raising capital, all the hats.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Which was an amazing way to learn the real estate.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

Because how many people were at 13th floor at that point?

SPEAKER_00 34:24

It was maybe five.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

And that was kind of when that class of firms emerged, I feel like it was the first wave of them was 13th floor and Mast and Integra. I'm I'm I'm forgetting there's a bunch of others too, but where that's like this omni opportunistic private equity real estate developer company. And it's a cool way to get into real estate because you can kind of get exposure to everything, kind of like your your business management.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

It it it wasn't a really like unbelievable way to learn the real estate business. And I'm very thankful to Arno and Daryl, Gray, and the whole crew still. Um, because I think my real love and passion for real estate started there. And just the love of finding value and determining how to how to drive value creation and how to look at deals in a creative way. A lot of that DNA I learned there.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Any uh deals stick out in your mind that you worked on while at 13th floor?

SPEAKER_00 35:19

One big, big one, which is still being executed on, and one that I'm super proud of, and the guys are are crushing it with it, is Douglas Station.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Which is, I think the big still going? I thought it was done. There's there's another tower. Another tower coming. Dang. Um, but that that was um an RFP with Miami Day Transit. It's a landlease, right? It's a landlease. And uh when the RFP came out, I was a newbie at 13th floor post-business school. And I think maybe 13th floor had never pursued an RFP and and no one really knew how to approach it. So it landed on my desk because you know, I didn't know how to do anything.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

So you just knew how to figure things out.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

So we worked through it, and in some miraculous series of events, you know, we were awarded it, though related was competing with us. And it was just a huge, huge get in terms of the scale of the deal and the opportunity it presented. And so though I I haven't been at 13th floor through most of that execution, I was I was the lead on the acquisition and and structuring of that ground, lease.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Dang. What uh why do you think you guys won? And like what was what's that what set your bit apart?

SPEAKER_00 36:26

I like to think it's our creative vision and the execution of the beautiful 90-page RFP document. And no, look, I think I I I think uh it it it was probably part execution and part lock. Uh, you know, I think the the the plan and the vision for the parcel was was compelling to to transit into the county. Um and I think that, you know, it's always good in these things to also be lucky. And I think, you know, related was the thousand-pound gorilla in the room. And I think there's other deals that they had been awarded previously, and it was time for another group to have an opportunity and bite at the apple. And we we presented, I think, a really professional, um, well-thought program.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

What how many bidders were there? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_00 37:14

The final two were related in us. Okay. I think there were a handful of others in an earlier stage and it was whittled down.

SPEAKER_02 37:20

What year was that?

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Us to 2015?

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

And I think we I think actually it was just the 10-year anniversary of us being selected.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Us 30th floor, I should say.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

And and uh what who who who helped you guys design the the the project that you guys proposed to um to the county?

SPEAKER_00 37:44

So Adler was a partner on that deal, and and is a partner, I believe, uh, to this day on that deal. Ad Inc was the architecture firm that we were working with on the design side.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Miami-based? Yes. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

And was were was related also doing retail, or were they have a retail component as well with the my recollection is their program was largely residentially focused.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

That's a better example. And our proposal had some other alternate uses like hotel and and retail. Interestingly, the majority of the execution in reality has been residential with some limited retail components.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

But isn't that where the sprouts is, or is that a different deal?

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Uh mylums.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Mylums. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

That's Grove Station.

SPEAKER_02 38:26

Got it. Got it, got it. Yeah, it makes sense. Is it what does that spark your love for retail? Was working on that deal?

SPEAKER_00 38:35

You know.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Or do you have a love for retail? I kind of just presupposed.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

I most certainly do have a love and passion for retail. Um, I would say that that a real love for retail has been developed through my time at Eden's and through real exposure to the core of how the retail business gets done and how you create places. I've always been interested in retail. I've always been frankly interested from like an intellectual curiosity perspective on in all asset types. I I think whether it's um sexy or not, the opportunity to create value and transform places is just an interesting thing to study and perfect. But most but I but I would tell you that when I entered Eden's, I didn't have deep expertise um for retail.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

How did the Eden's connection happen?

SPEAKER_00 39:25

It happened in a fortuitous way, as many things do. Um, I got to know the leadership of Edens, um, our chief investment officer, Jamie Passer, who used to run the Florida team, and Jody McLean, who's the CEO of Eden's, actually, in some ways through the Douglas project, we were looking for a retail partner and having conversations with a bunch of groups to bring in on the retail side. And so got to know them a little bit through. But you said there was a connection with Lyle too? There was. I I Lyle put together a retail, a real estate panel uh for some University of Pennsylvania students that were coming through town and asked me to sit on this panel, which I did. And Jamie Passer was asked to sit on this panel as well. And that's how the two of us met.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 40:13

That's very cool. Yeah, what a connector. I know. We love Lyle.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

I'm I'm right, I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

And so second that thought. You started Eden's in 2016.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

And what uh what's that been like since then? It's been 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Yeah, I mean, hold on, hold on. So so they decide to hire you that has like no retail experience.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Like what she just won the RFP, she can do anything.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

I guess so, right?

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Have you ever those RFPs are no joke? That's it's excruciating.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

So they're like, all right, so she can win an RFP, she can do anything. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was interesting.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

She can build some big boxes.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

You know, it was an interesting courtship. It was I had the same questions that you guys have vis-a-vis my the experience I had and and their interest in me. Um, but I I think the Eden's point of view was look, we're we're looking for people who are intellectually curious, um, who like to solve problems, who like to create great places, and the rest can be taught. And uh, you know, 10 years in, I would say I I I I agree with that mandate. And uh it's been an amazing learning process of getting really deep in one asset vertical after being pretty broad across all assets, and uh and it's been a fun experience.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Um when did uh when did your husband put the rack on the finger?

SPEAKER_00 41:38

2013 we got married. Yeah, all right. That's that that I moved to Miami after we got married.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Okay. Um and you had your first child when 2018. Okay. So you're at you're at Eden's already. Um so you you you're you joined Eden's um as vice president of investments, and what are you working on?

SPEAKER_00 42:04

So the role was really running the Florida team. And what that entailed and entails to this day is really three big hats to wear. One is uh running the existing portfolio. So there's, you know, Eden's uh has a large portfolio of existing assets. Today it's about a hundred places across the country, and those need to be managed and run every day to continue to drive value and and maintain place.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

How many tenants do you think?

SPEAKER_00 42:33

Thousands.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

Right. At least ten per location, if you have a hundred. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

Many more than thousands and thousands.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

And and you're running point for Florida. So you're you're at but you're at that point, you're you're vice president to okay, but we asked Mr. Lead the Florida office. Correct. So you're running Florida.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

And and it was what was neat about the opportunity was while at 13th floor wore lots of hats and it was a really fun entrepreneurial small environment, we were really in the deal business. We were buying deals, executing deals, selling deals, and we were in the fun business, raising capital, which was which was great. You said raising capital is fun. Okay, we we were we were able to raise. I thought I heard fund. Oh, fund, fund, fund.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

I thought you said fund business. The fun business.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

I thought the fun business, I'm like, oh, raising capital sucks. She's masochistic, she's from Toronto, they're used to the cold, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

Um so but but the opportunity to at Eden's initially, and again, you know, similar today, was really to run a business. It was a team of people focused like across different disciplines. So we're we're totally vertically integrated. We have leasing people who do nothing but lease our properties and sit in our office, property managers, tiny construction people, asset managers, marketing folks, et cetera. Whereas in the 13th floor context, we really a lot of those disciplines sat outside the business in a third party context, which is which is not a bad model. It's just a different model. Um, so this was an opportunity to come in and almost Play a mini CEO role within a region and run a business in terms of the day-to-day operations of executing the business. And then also take full responsibility for executing all development within the portfolio and sort of play the lead developer role of site plan approvals and visioning for redevelopments on anything within the state. And then lastly, really drive the growth program and add to the portfolio, lead all acquisitions, lead all due diligence through acquisitions, add to the portfolio and pipeline, and ultimately really be the local brand and vision for the business in the market.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Sounds pretty chill.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

Well, it was it was the timing was great in that I had no children. So it was a great opportunity. It was, it was a great time to dig into a challenge. And the first couple of years, you know, it was like drinking from a fire hose, both ramping up on a very asset-specific sector while really learning to run a business, which, you know, I wasn't even 30 at that time. And so one of the biggest challenges and learning opportunities was coming into a business where you had vertical vertical functions where people had tons of experience and they had been doing leasing for 30 years and they had been doing property management for 25 years. And you're sort of asked to come and step into a leadership role to lead the business when you know you don't have that level of vertical.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

When you're 30 and they have 25 years of experience, right? So awesome.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

So it was, it was a it was a big jump to make. It was one of those jumps you know, where candidly I was not leaving looking to leave 13th floor. It was in a and it was a really tough choice. And I had become a principal at 13th floor and had had just had no plans to leave. Um, but I felt that the opportunity was a unique one and a really big stretch opportunity that I candidly probably wasn't ready for, but is one of those opportunities that doesn't knock every day, and you just got to take the plunge.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

What are some um some of the highlight properties that they have here in Florida, Edens?

SPEAKER_00 46:02

So we own Fifth and Alton in Miami Beach, right off the Causeway.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

Berkowitz built that, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 46:06

Berkowitz built that.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

We had him on the pod too back a year ago, maybe more, a couple of years ago. A few years ago at least.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

So that's a big high-profile project, but one that we didn't develop. Um, another another high-profile one would be River Market, which is a Whole Foods Anchored asset on Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. And I think I would argue one of the best open-air pieces of retail real estate in Fort Lauderdale, um, in terms of its tenancy and just what we've been able to build there. Um Lakeside Center, another great grocery-anchored shopping center in Boca, Central Boca on Glades Road. Downtown Palm Beach Gardens, which is the big downtown core in Palm Beach Gardens with a Whole Foods, Lifetime Fitness just adjacent to the mall. So those are a couple, a couple of the big ones.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

So Eden's likes the open air shopping center model.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

Yeah, that's the business. The business is, I would say predominantly open air and community lifestyle from a retail standpoint. We we also own a lot of mixed use, but we are really in the the place-making community business. And the portfolio today is close to seven and a half billion and about a hundred places across the country. And close to 90% of our places have a grocery component. So that notion of the daily trip, you know, the convenience and the consumer spending lots of time is a big part of is a big part of our thesis.

SPEAKER_02 47:36

Have you been to like the Grove for Americana, the Rick Caruso developments in LA?

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

I just find some of those properties so inspiring. Like some of the coolest real estate, I feel like, is that that exact business model.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

Completely. And there's been a huge shift, I think, more broadly over the last five to 10 years towards this type of retail experience where consumers are looking for convenience, are looking to have something within a seven to 14 minute drive time from their house. And that really probably isn't the enclosed mall or the high street. It's really the community strip.

SPEAKER_02 48:09

And it's the experiential aspect of it. You get to go somewhere, kind of there's a vibe, there's music, there's maybe a fountain, there's people out. It's it's not just going into a sterile 80s mall.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

Completely. And so I I think, you know, roughly 15 years ago, and credit to the Eden's leadership for making that shift at that time, I think there was a view at Eden's that retail is changing, and it's going to be less about commodity and it's going to be more about what the place feels like. So so you guys developed downtown Palm Beach Gardens? We did not develop downtown Palm Beach Gardens. We actually purchased downtown Palm Beach Gardens midstream development and completed the development. It was about there was about 80 to 90,000 feet of vacancy when we bought it, which we've for the most part leased.

SPEAKER_02 48:55

Sounds like a hell of a lot of DD taking on a half-built project.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

That one is a complicated one.

SPEAKER_01 49:01

I can bet. I've been to that project. Um my son, he, you know, he's he we there's soccer tournaments in Palm Beach Gardens. It's it's uh it's a it's really well done. Um that project. Uh and then there's there's even like this nice grassy area where you have concerts. That's right. Um, so it's kind of a it's kind of a vibe over there.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

Like um, I mean, that's like the Grove or the Americana. They all it's a it's a great concept. I think that works so well. Miami needs one of those. Are you guys doing one in Miami?

SPEAKER_00 49:35

We would love to do one in Miami. It's a little tough to get the scale, but we're we're we're we're searching.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

So you guys bought it, but that idea of putting like that that grassy area, was that all Eden's at that point? Or was there a master plan that you guys already had bought and basically follow that?

SPEAKER_00 49:51

So green space is a huge part of what we do from an execution standpoint anywhere we're developing. We're developing right now, by example, in West Boca. It's called Shadowwood, and we're midstream in that development, and we're gonna be adding two green spaces for that same sort of activation. In the case of downtown Palm Beach Gardens, that green space is contemplated for future development. It's about an acre, but there are elements of that green space which will likely remain, and there's other parts of green space across the property. While we work through those longer-term development plans, we've said, hey, we should activate this. So we've put out some great furniture, lawn games. We have our marketing team doing movies in the movings movies in the park every Friday night.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

So we we definitely believe that it is a huge driver of trips and dwell time.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

And then we and we finally have an REI here in South Florida. That's right. When did when did that arrive?

SPEAKER_00 50:43

REI opened stores in South Florida, I would say, within the last five years.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

Because before that, there I think the closest one was in Orlando. Yeah. Um, and that are there where where where else is there an IA?

SPEAKER_00 50:56

There's another REI in West Boca. Okay, wow. And the I think those might be the two in South Florida. Yeah, I think that's it.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

Um I think an interesting thing that's being balanced these days with these types of shopping centers is the authenticity angle because you want it to feel authentic. You don't want to put a cinnamon in one of these developments. I mean, how do you how do you do that? How do you make sure it doesn't feel what's the word? Force, but there's a better word for it, like trite, where they're like, oh, this is authentic, but it's clearly just a transparent move.

SPEAKER_00 51:27

So I think the local nature of our execution and teams does a lot to unlock that authenticity. As I noted, we have local leasing teams who live in Florida, lease only Eden's properties in Florida. Um, and we have that model across the country. And we care deeply about when we buy a property and redevelop a property, really truly understanding the trade area and the demographics and the communities that surround our properties and taking a very hard look at what we call void analysis and what we think is really missing to create that ecosystem. So, authenticity for every single trade area and property is different. Like what's right for downtown Palm Beach Gardens in terms of the needs of that community are really different from what is needed in Weston or what might be needed in Miami Beach. But we take a pretty curated approach to that and have a very strong point of view on merchandising. And when I say merchandising, what I mean is the ecosystem of tenants and how you pair tenants with one another, whether it be local, regional, national, and how you think about the creation of that vibe, which is more of an art than a science. You know, there's a science element to it, but I think a lot of our secret sauce at Eden's and our ability to create a place that when you show up, you say, Hey, this feels like an Eden's place, is that ability and a pulse on what the texture of a community is and what that community really needs. And it's different. Like some communities, we do a certain type of art execution, and in others, maybe not, depending on the needs of that community and what we believe is authentic.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

It almost seems like it takes a comp a big company like Eden's to be able to allow that level of creativity and freedom. Because sometimes you need to mirror what a locality is, and sometimes you want to bring in something totally different that it doesn't have. Like I always think coming from Minnesota, which is the land of Chipotle's and Walmarts and Applebee's, like you want to see like a puta vita there would kill it. Or um, you know, Alamon in in in Minneapolis would crush, but you know, they just don't get that exposure. Like Toronto's a little different because it's a little more cosmopolitan. But it's like, do you mirror the place or do you bring something better?

SPEAKER_00 53:31

I I think when we when we buy something, we typically look at it as a palette for what it could or should be and what the consumer needs or wants and isn't getting today. And what when we opened Pure Vita, because you you hit on that one, Ben, um, we opened the first Pure Vita in Boca at Lakeside a couple of years ago. And there's probably a line and the they are cranking to a level that's absolutely unbelievable. And what's interesting to that point is I think when we started that conversation, you know, Pure Vita wasn't sure if Boca was the right market for them and whether it made sense for them to migrate to Boca. And I think it was the deep, deep knowledge and conviction of our team and the confidence that retailers have in our team and point of view, because of what we've been able to execute in the past, that they sort of what I'll say is take a leap of faith to open that store. Meanwhile, that store has been one of their most successful stores and they now use that store as a test location for new concepts that they're rolling out because of how successful and high volume that store is. So I think we've we have the benefit because of our really local presence and deep relationships with retailers to make a pitch to retailers like Mamon, like Pura Vita, to trust us that the place we're gonna build is gonna be right for them. And they'll take a take that leap of faith with us.

SPEAKER_02 54:46

Well, I guarantee if you put a a per vita in Minnesota, it would crush. But they're gonna call it something.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

I wish we were not in Minnesota, but if we get there, we'll go.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

That per vita sure has a good smoothie. And let me ask you, I don't know if you can even talk about this, but how do you structure your deals with with different tenants? Is it you know just regular triple net? Is it base rent plus revenue share, or is it different depending on you know each tenant? Can you talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 55:16

Sure. I look it very slightly, obviously, from tenant to tenant, but for the most part, we we are executing traditional triple net base deals. Um, in the case of restaurants, you know, we we we try to to get a percentage rent structure as well.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

With restaurants. Why does that structure work better than other retailers?

SPEAKER_00 55:39

Uh with restaurants, but more broadly, I mean, look, we're of the view that if we can create an ecosystem for our retailers where they can be super successful and really outperform their underwritten expectations, um, that we we would want to participate in some of that upside. Now, there's things that we do as the landlord and as a partner to these retailers to drive that. We program green outdoor space. We invest in in our program. You know, in Boca, when we executed Lakeside, we executed two murals, um, which was a which was a big lift and required us to go through, you know, the art board and unincorporated Palm Beach County. And I think we were the very first to ever deliver art on Glades Road, which was something really new for that consumer. But we invest in those things because we really believe it drives the consumer to come and spend time, which our retailers benefit from. Um, but I would say overall we're we're doing traditional deals with base rent, triple net structures. Um, it would, it's rare for us to do pure percentage rent deals.

SPEAKER_02 56:37

I mean, there I think the other reason is it was just something cool that a big company like that can do is restaurants are such small margins that if you have a high base rent, they're not going to be there that long if if revenue fluctuates at all. You got to let them kind of build that reputation, which leads me to another question I had, which was how do you balance getting maximizing rent and not pricing out great concepts? Because you see that happen a lot where a place will take off, rents follow, and now everyone's chasing these crazy rent numbers, and now the retailers or the restaurants can't afford it, and they all go to the network, they go try to find somewhere else, they get put out of business. Panther just left Sunset Harbor. You know, you see these things happening. Lincoln Road is it's gone through multiple ups and downs of that. So that's like a delicate balancing act.

SPEAKER_00 57:19

Completely. And it's a real challenge. When we when we endeavor and embark on a redevelopment, we we try from an underwriting standpoint to acknowledge that fact, which is to create the right ecosystem needs a mix of tenants, and not all of those tenants can necessarily pay 70 bucks a foot. And to create the right environment, your underwriting has to reflect the varying levels of rent that are viable for different business models. You know, we love, by example, a bookstore. We think it's fantastic in terms of just the vibe it creates. We love a floral shop. Those types of users generally don't do the volumes to support market rents. And so it's a balance, and I think it requires like intentionality, such that you have the latitude to execute on that. I also think as a landlord, and particularly in the retail business and prime MSAs, there's a big responsibility on the part of the owner to really understand the business model of these retailers and understand can these retailers support the proposed rents, even if they're willing to sign up for it.

SPEAKER_03 58:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:22

What are the underlying assumptions from a sales perspective, a unit perspective, and can they do the volume? Because it's a partnership. And I think it's it's incumbent on the owner to diligence that viability before you sign a lease that that frankly doesn't work.

SPEAKER_02 58:37

That's such a tough balancing act in a city like Miami, too, where everyone just wants fuck you money. Everyone wants the next highest price. And it's just like, man, we're always butting up against that. And then seeing great concepts get shipped away or just deals not happen that could. That level of intentionality, I think, is a a piece that's coming, but it's just tough to make happen in these high, high intensity markets.

SPEAKER_00 58:58

And and for us, though, obviously, look, we're we're an institutional business and there's returns that we need to hit. We aren't in the business of just taking the highest paying rent tenant. We're not. We're in the business of creating the right ecosystem. And of course, you have to harvest rents and drive returns. But there's many times that we've made the decision to lease a space to a tenant who pays a lower rent because we think that operator, that user, and what they offer from a co-tenancy perspective is superior and overall creates a better ecosystem. And it and look, we have the benefit of being really long-term owners and can make those sorts of trade-offs because we're not looking to turn around and sell our properties. But that's the mindset that we have.

SPEAKER_02 59:38

And that creates higher long-term value, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 59:41

We think so.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:43

Where is Eaton's headquarters? DC.

SPEAKER_02 59:47

How are when you're looking at entering a new market? You mentioned you would love to be in Miami. How do you evaluate what area is right for you guys? Is there like a certain set of demographics to you look for? Other the competitors that are nearby. You don't have to give away the secret sauce, but like what do you what do you look for in a in an investable neighborhood?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:06

So first we we like scale. So to us, getting to you know, uh a scale that we can actually affect place is important. You know, owning 25,000 feet, though it might be interesting. We feel like you need a hundred thousand plus square feet to really make an impact on the consumer. And that's important from our point of view. From a demographic standpoint, we look at a a stat called buying power, which effectively looks at incomes in the trade area and households. So it's looking at both income and density. And we like to see um, you know, the average buying power of our places is like 10, like it you the number used to be five million and and now it now I think it's 10. What does that mean buying power? Buying power is multiplying the number of households in a trade area by the incomes. Okay. And we like to see it's very specific to the trade area because obviously in Miami, by example, your trade areas can be cut off by water or the Everglades. But we like buying powers between I would say five to ten billion.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

Five to ten billion. So it's a factor of density and household income. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:21

And does Miami fit that? Absolutely. I assume pretty much most places would fit that. Yeah. The problem is the scale. Is there a minimum land size if you're going to develop from raw land that you look at?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:33

It's more about um leasable square footage that you can execute on.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:37

Right. So minimum of a hundred thousand square feet-ish. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:43

Yeah. But the Miami trade area is tremendous, and we own in in Miami-Dade County, we would love to own more.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:49

It's obviously there's just challenges with with uh competition and and scale.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:53

Miami-Dade County, all you guys own is Alton and Fifth?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:57

We also own in North Miami Biscayne Commons and Arena Shops, which is just south of Aventura in the North Miami corridor. We own in Hyaleah. And we own we owned the Whole Foods in downtown Miami, which we sold. Who'd you guys sell that to? Whole Foods and Amazon.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:18

That's a good buyer.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:20

They were a great buyer. You recently sold that, right? A few years ago. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:24

That's cool. I don't know they're I didn't realize they were buying their own real estate. Interesting. So what's next for Eidens? What's next for you? What's on the horizon?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:33

So we would love to grow, you know, we're we're growing nationally, as a general statement, with a big with a big focus in Florida, Texas, the Southeast. I would say are the biggest focus growth areas for us. We also own on the West Coast in California and are continuing to grow the platform there. Um big portfolio in the Mid-Atlantic and also in the Northeast. Our mandate is to is really to continue what we're doing at a larger scale, which is own, develop, and manage really great transformational places. And our a big metric that we use to assess the success of our places is what we call trips and dwell time. And so we are looking to invest in places that people visit, you know, three and a half times a week, which is a tall task in today's world to ask someone to come anywhere three and a half times a week, and spend up to five hours a week in our places. And so how do you how do you guys measure dwell time? Is that all by cell phone? Placer AI has a has a has a lot of data as it relates to dwell time. But it's something that we that we track. Our today people spend on average, I think the stat is 45 minutes on average at our places.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

So you guys want at least 45 minutes of dwell time?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:48

That's our average today, yeah, in terms of our portfolio. We'd love as much dwell time as possible.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:54

But a big part of our thesis with the grocer and the cotenancy that we seek to deliver is is in service of the desire to get people on our properties with a high level of frequency and get them to stay.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:06

Yeah. So frequency and dual time makes sense. Yeah, it makes total sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:11

You hungry now? Hell yeah. You thirsty? We got shops. Do you guys put uh movie theaters in your developments?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:19

We do have theaters across some of our centers. Actually, downtown Palm Beach Gardens has a a big, a big 16-screen theater. I I would tell you we don't we don't seek out ownership in theaters for some obvious macro headwinds in that sector. Um I don't see us building new theater based on the just dynamics and economics of that business today. But for those theaters that still exist, we've seen that they can do okay because no new supply is really coming in.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:53

Interesting. But so you guys develop a lot of your properties, but you also buy existing. Correct. Yeah. And generally when you buy existing, is there some um level of renovation that you're doing to the product just to fit the you know the the the Eden you know brand?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:13

Always. Yeah. It's it would it's very rare for us to buy a property and do nothing. We typically look for properties that have some opportunity for value creation, whether that be on the leasing side with vacancy to really transform the merchandising or on the design side or on the development side. So we we do we do feel strongly about putting on what I'll call the Eden's touch. We've become a little we've become famous for our Eden's white paint, which is on a lot of our properties.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:44

Just paint everything white or what? Pretty much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:47

It's amazing what a coat of white paint that is.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:50

It does, right? White paint, black trim, or what's the trim?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:53

We are from a design standpoint, and design is actually a huge part of what we do. And we are a big part. Proponents of simplicity and less being more. And so we spend a lot of time and we have a lot of resources internally, actually, which is unique for a real estate business, focused on design. We have many architects and designers who sit in-house and do nothing but work on evidence properties. We don't outsource a lot of that. We do that all in-house. And everything from paint color selection, tile selection, we have a pretty rigorous process of how we think about signage and consistency in signage and diversity of signage. And, you know, the that classic red pizza sign that you'll see on a strip is something that like we do, you know, we don't allow that in its properties. They're both amazing partners of ours. And I think they really understand this the notion of design and aesthetic and vibe. And it's just unbelievable the way the way a place feels really drives the value proposition. And we see it at the ownership landlord level and we see it at the tenant level, at the retailer level. And you know, with all with all the concepts that you see growing, I think a key theme is aesthetic.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

Well, it goes back to design. It's like the highest ROI thing that previous generations never really paid attention to because it doesn't cost a lot to give a fuck. But if you care and you make it look good, that paint doesn't cost any more than the other paint, but it just looks that much better.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:32

So I think on the food side, those are two great examples of and great partners of ours. We've done tons of deals with both, and we think there's more to come. And then I think you're seeing some really interesting innovation in the service space, you know, and the quasi-medical space too. Um, you know, tenants like Laseraway and Blue Mercury and you know, smaller, sort of innovative service users, the sweat houses of the world that are that are going out and taking like a very thin slice of the lifetime fitness value proposition and offering it within 2,000 square feet. So we're seeing a big growth in that category as a general statement. Um some interesting stuff happening on the dessert side of the world. You know, Go Greek is a cool concept that's in World Center, actually, that's expanding really quickly. And it's a very artisanal, authentic, truly Greek yogurt concept with ingredients from Greece and sort of this quasi-health and wellness meets dessert concept. Um, so I think the theme on all the concepts that are growing and successful is engagement with the consumer, innovation in the in inside their storeroom, and really focusing on experience.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:43

Where do you go to find these concepts? How do you do is this like conventions where you just travel and just hit up all these retail spots worthwhile just force feeding you?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:52

Fucking hammering you every day. I got a new concept for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:56

You know, it's kind of a combination of all the above. And and a big part of the culture of Edens, and this extends, I would say to every single person who works at Edens, regardless of their discipline, is this appetite and creativity and exploration uh in the real world in retail. And when our you know folks in our team are traveling in Europe or away on vacation and they see a cool concept, they'll like take a photo of it and send it. And a lot of some of the really interesting executions that have come in our portfolio have really come through personal relationships or thinking a concept is cool. A great example is we did a deal with a concept called Naked Farmer, which is is down in downtown Miami and is also has a location on Los Volas. But they originated in Tampa. And uh our director of leasing learned about them and got to know them and really liked them and and basically convinced them to come to Palm Beach Gardens because of the personal relationship. It's sort of a fast, casual, healthy food concept. Okay. And so some of the some of the uh innovation and and where we find these retailers just through our own personal networks. And then some of it is, you know, through more traditional methods and means.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:03

What in your experience going from you you saw both sides of third-party outsource everything versus total vertical integration? What do you think works better?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:13

Or I guess better is an objective term, but yeah, I think what works better is really subject to your structure and what you're solving for and what your long-term goals are and your GNA thresholds and all of that. But in terms of what works better optimally, you know, where can you execute a more special sauce? I think no doubt is with vertical integration. Now, to make a vertically integrated platform economic, you need a certain scale. And that I think that's the benefit we have at Eden's being a seven and a half billion dollar business. You know, we have the scale to have best in class leasing people do nothing but wake up every morning and think about Eden's properties. That is a huge luxury because we have a very specific way we view the world and a very specific way that we think about matching tenants and creating ecosystem and creating a vibe. I think that's really hard to replicate with a third-party format. It can be done. It can be done if the owner is sufficiently, I think, passionate and um specific about what the uses should be. But I think it's very tough to ask a third-party uh leasing team who may cover, you know, o assets across 16 different owners to have that sauce that's so specific to you. Um so I do think that a lot of our special sauce and ability to execute the way we do has to do with the the integrated nature of the platform.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:34

It certainly seems like, and it's also it's like optimal uh incentive alignment too.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:38

Completely.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:39

Like a full circle. Yeah, it's very cool to see.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:43

Um how many kids do you have? Three. How do you do it? And how old are your kids?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:49

So my I have three kids, seven and under. My eldest Maya is seven. She's turning eight this summer. Middle is my son, Tobias, Toby. He just turned six. And my youngest Lila is four.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:04

That's a lot. How do you find time for all this? I mean, like being a mother and just like crushing it at Eden's, like, I can't even imagine at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:15

No. First, shout out to my husband.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:17

Yeah. I mean, he's a doctor though, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:20

He's a dermatologist, so he has a good schedule. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:22

I thought he's working nights too.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:24

No, no, he's got a good schedule, but no, I mean, first of all, team effort for sure. To my husband, to the team that extends beyond my husband. Um, and and we have great support and help and and all of that. But um, you know, you just make it work, I guess is what I'd say. And I think it's doable.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:45

And I and my biggest recommendation when when I'm asked from you know, younger women in the business or or people who are thinking we have a family is I think you need to just do it. And then as you as you do it, you figure out how to optimize around the circumstances. And it's a very difficult thing to plan for. And I think it it's kind of creates unnecessary anxiety to worry about these things before you're facing them. But when you're facing them, you know, having a you know, having a partner that you can rely on, obviously, having the help that you need. And and I think kudos to Edens, um, which is a great supportive place for women. And we've got lots of women uh like myself and the leadership team. And the CEO is a woman, right? CEO is a woman, half of our C-suite is female. And I think you know, it's an environment where you know, obviously there's an expectation around performance and execution, as there should be, but there's an ex an understanding that people have things outside of the office, and there's a flexibility around that. And I think there's a culture around performance, but around being open about who you are and your family and your priorities and and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:50

You don't seem like the kind of person that just wants to be a mom. Like you want to be a mom, but you want to kick some ass and take some names at work.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:57

That's the goal.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:59

But yeah, and and and and I'm really I I absolutely love being a mom. Like it has been the best experience and and bring brought me more joy than anything I've done in earnest. In spite of being very career-driven and really ambitious, I being a mom is the I think the source of probably the greatest joy that I have for sure. I do love being a working mom, though. And for me, being a working mom is the right choice. I think being a working mom allows me to be a better mom because a big part of who I am too is engagement intellectually and being able to be out there learning new things, meeting new people, making things happen. Um, but obviously being able to do that within the context of having an active home life. And part of the what's been great in the role of Eden's Florida is I'm home for dinner almost every night. And we're still kicking ass and taking names, but I don't travel a ton. And uh, you know, I I'm able when my kids are little, which is really important to me to be home and involved. And three days a week I walk my kids to school, if not more. And it's it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:03

Um and the Eden's office is in near you?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:06

Our office is in Fort Lauderdale.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:09

And so um it sort of sits in the middle of the Tri-County area, which is serves our the whole market, and our team sort of sits Miami through Palm Beach. So it's in a central location. Um Do you go to the office every day? I'm in the office most days. Uh I'm also on property and we own properties all over all over the the state. Um, but the the commute's not ideal, but I do think it's important to be with the team in the office and we make a priority of of being there together. Uh, but with flexibility. And you know, the days you're walking your kids to school, you come to the office a little later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:47

I love it. Um and what do you do? I mean, you were you were an athlete, you know, in high school. Do you still stay pretty active and physical fitness still be a pretty big part of you know just your mental and physical health? Totally. Yeah. Totally.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:04

Yes. I I used to be like I really enjoyed the morning workout, but given my current life circumstances, my mornings consist of lunches and dressing children and breakfast and walking to school. And so I I the schedule has shifted over time. But yeah, being active and continuing, whether it be at the gym or running, working out, has always been a big part of my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:27

So you hit the gym still?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:29

Yeah, weight training.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:30

A little weight training, a lot of running. Yeah, you're running these days. Yeah, and actually more like evening running now, which isn't my preference, but is when I can do it. So I get out there, just do a couple miles. Nice. But running and then being active with the kids. I mean, we're playing soccer outside, tennis, all the things.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:48

Cool. I think that's it. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:51

Yeah. We're uh it's it's so great to reconnect with you and and learn a little bit more about you, uh, Nicole. I mean, I've I've we've been I've been following your career for the last 10 years, and it's uh it's always great to connect with badass women. Totally, right? Um and uh and so what's next for you? I mean, you're gonna stick around with Edens for a little bit longer. You you love the retail?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:15

I I will say after 10 years in retail, I really have learned a love for the art. And you know, I I will say of all the asset types, I think it's maybe the most intellectually challenging in that you're dealing with these big puzzle pieces and you're you it's professional tenancy and the encumbrances and the complexity of unlocking value is something I like. And so yeah, I think there's I think there's tons of opportunity ahead and in terms of growing the portfolio, in terms of uh, you know, doing some different programmatic things as a business. I I I think the skill set that we have in the Eden's platform is unique, and we're looking for ways to accelerate and grow that.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:58

What are the markets you guys are looking at here in Florida? What are the markets you guys are looking at here in Florida?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:03

We're mostly focused southeast and southwest. And so Tampa is a market that we would love to be in.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:08

You guys are not there right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:09

We are not there today. We were there historically, and then we got out of the market, and we are actively looking to get back in. Um, continue to grow the footprint in southeast Florida. We've looked uh selectively in other parts of the state as well, but we're like selectively.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:26

So I'm not even gonna ask you about Jackson though. As you go further north, it's not going.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:31

But but super excited about the full Southeast and Southwest Coast. Yeah, we've been really active in the Carolinas, very excited about Charleston. We have a bunch of exciting development deals happening there. We're doing a lot in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:44

What do you think the percentages between new development, ground up development, and acquisition?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:49

The lion's share of our business globally is purchasing existing and then redeveloping.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:55

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:55

I would say it's probably 75-25, 25% sort of ground up, really complicated mixed-use execution and 75% more existing redevelopment. Got it. Makes sense. All right, cool. Thank you so much for having me, guys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:10

It was a good first podcast. We didn't let you down.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:13

Well, I guess we'll we'll have to see. We'll have to see how the final comes out. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:18

This is awesome, Nicole. This is a lot of fun, guys. Thank you so much for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:21

Yeah, yeah. Great to see you both.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:23

Have a great afternoon. Cheers. Thanks guys. Thanks, Nicole.