Ross Glickman talks about this company’s international endeavor and why not many Western companies in the industry have attempted it.

Urban Retail Properties Co., an industry leader in development and property management, is working on a handful of projects about to be set in motion in China and India. According to Ross Glickman, chairman and CEO for the last seven years, the company’s international business endeavors beg the question of why it’s going that route. “The answer is that we can’t ignore 1.6 billion people in those countries emerging in a lot of different capacities,” said Glickman.

Glickman said companies from India and China are clamoring for Urban Retail’s expertise from a construction management, development, and leasing perspective. “It has taken us four years to hone in on what is practical and doable, and we discovered the opportunities are fantastic,” Glickman said.

The company has placed many of its resources in those countries and now has offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, India, as well as in Shanghai, China, that are set up to have an on-the-ground presence. It has also teamed up with a variety of local Chinese and Indian nationals. Urban Retail’s projects range from lifestyle centers containing retail buildings, hotels, conference offices, and residential buildings to vertical mix-use, which comprise upscale residential buildings and seven-star hotels.

Ross Glickman

Premier developer
Urban Retail is the leading third-party real estate manager in the country, managing more than 56 million square feet of space in 25 states as well as the District of Columbia. The independent, privately held company is the developer of more than 75 domestic and international premier shopping destinations and mixed-use products, including Water Tower Place and 900 North Michigan Shops in Chicago, Copley Place in Boston, and the redevelopment of the Houston Galleria and Old Orchard Center in Skokie, Ill.

Headquartered in Chicago, the company has offices in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington, DC. The 30-year-old company manages a diverse portfolio that includes retail, office, residential, concession management, and government projects. The full-service organization provides inhouse expertise for all management, marketing, leasing, and development issues, with 11 specialized departments that work together on each managed property.

International endeavor
Urban Retail is no stranger to international business. In fact, it started its international endeavors about 25 years ago, building in Japan, Mexico, Europe, and the Middle East. “We feel extremely comfortable in dealing with whatever foreign entity we have an opportunity with,” Glickman said.

Not many other companies have taken on such endeavors because they are too new, according to Glickman. “Our history has enabled us to build strong relationships with the governments of each country, and that has facilitated many opportunities,” he said.

According to the CEO, the company’s success is based on relationships, credibility, and how well it can drive home what it wants to accomplish without going through a bureaucractic maze. Urban Retail has been able to dramatically reduce this process, enabling it to streamline what needs to be done to build correctly.

It’s the company’s ability to foster these relationships that distinguishes it from the rest, according to Glickman. “We’ve got relationships abroad that are second to none. When you start looking at us domestically, our advantage over many of our competitors is that we’re vertically integrated. We have all the services we can offer, including leasing management, marketing, tenant coordination, development, and financial accounting, in a variety of formats. Most companies don’t have all those disciplines under one roof. That sets us apart.”

“Intrapreneurial” spirit
Urban Retail recognizes its employees as its main asset, creating a strong culture of inclusion. A large number of the company’s 600 employees have been with the company for 15 to 20 years.

“The culture is boiled down to the fact that each of our businesses are entrepreneurial, and people can make decisions without feeling encumbered by a bureaucratic system,” Glickman said. “We’re more fluid and flexible than other companies; people run their shop like it’s their own, and that speaks volumes because they have more room for creativity.”

Because there are a variety of disciplines at Urban Retail, employees have the ability to think outside the box and be “intrapreneurial” as well as entrepreneurial, according to Glick-man, which means employees make decisions respective to their areas of the business.

Glickman started at Urban Retail 20 years ago, and while the same culture has been in place, it has significantly enhanced over the years as the business evolved.

“There are different types of individuals coming into the shopping center industry from other industries, bringing a lot of mixed talent. Years ago, the shopping center industry was much more institutional. There wasn’t the amount of creativity there is today. You have to stay fresh to be competitive. That has given each of our leaders a real sense of entrepreneurship.”