Beyond The Sale
After selling his family retail chain 7 years ago, H.J. Brody launched BrodyCo, Inc., co-developer of the highly anticipated Mayfaire project in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Katie Foxworth

Mayfaire Town Center will anchor Mayfaire, a 394-acre development of BrodyCo and Zimmer Development Company in Wilmington, North Carolina. Williams-Sonoma (seen here) is one of many new-to-market retailers at the center.

In the nearly two decades leading up to March 1998, retailing was all Brody had known. He joined the family business in 1979 after graduation from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. During his time at the helm, Brody helped to grow Brody Brothers Dry Goods from two to seven stores, each averaging 100,000 square feet in size. They were upscale stores, carrying some of the most discriminating national brands. And their resounding success in eastern North Carolina was enough to pique the interest of Brad Martin,  then owner of Proffitt’s department stores. In 1998, Martin bought Brody Brothers. Two months later, Martin also bought Saks, Inc. Brody was suddenly a retailer with no stores.

“I was a retailer for 20 years,” Brody says. “It prepares you to do a lot of things. You always have to be looking for ways to create your business and have the foresight to see beyond.”

Brody certainly possessed the foresight to see beyond. He knew he wasn’t selling to Profitt’s just to make a handsome profit and retire. He had other career goals in mind. Following the sale of his stores, Brody launched BrodyCo, Inc., a development and management real estate firm of which Brody serves as president and CEO. The Greenville, North Carolina-based company’s signature project thus far is Mayfaire, a $200 million culmination of 5 years worth of effort that will soon deliver 394 acres of stores, restaurants, residences, hotels and parks to the people of Wilmington, North Carolina. The mixed-use project, which will be anchored by 950,000 square feet of retail upon final build-out, is being developed in partnership with Wilmington, North Carolina-based Zimmer Development Company.

What It Takes

Brody’s background as a retailer has helped him as a developer and manager. “Being an independent retailer, we weren’t getting direction from anywhere else — we had to create everything we did,” he says. “I think it helped me tremendously to understand what a tenant needs, what’s important to them. It also helped me to understand how to do the right mix in a center and not just lease to any Tom, Dick and Harry that show up. We take the time to thoughtfully put together a mix that works well.” Then, with a chuckle, he adds: “It’s funny, as a tenant I always felt like the landlord got the better of me. Now that I’m a landlord, I feel like, gosh, the tenants are getting great deals!”

BrodyCo has approximately 1 million square feet of commercial property under its ownership and management in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. In its hometown of Greenville, the company has over 350,000 square feet of open-air retail space, mostly consisting of moderate retail with some big boxes.

“Greenville is an interesting town,” Brody says. “It’s home to East Carolina University, which is the third largest university in North Carolina. It’s a growing market, one of the top 10 retail markets in North Carolina.”

Phase I of Le Promenade, Greenville, North Carolina.

Le Promenade is not your typical power center, however. Phase II will even involve an office component. “It’s more of an open-air, walk-around type of environment,” Brody says. “Right now we have a new office area that will go in above the retail. And we’re doing a brand-new Old Navy that will open in the fall of this year.”

The Familiarity of Success

The Phase II expansion of Le Promenade is now underway.

“We’re a young company, a small company,” he says. “I think the success of Mayfaire has allowed us to realize that these types of concepts would work very well in other markets. Being an ex-retailer and understanding what people want, especially in the Carolinas and Virginia, it’s important to live in those markets. You can understand them a lot better than some of the bigger guys who come in and cookie-cutter their developments.”

At the end of the day, Brody says, it’s about building a better “mousetrap” — and he believes BrodyCo can deliver on that promise. “We can build a better mousetrap by being more local, more regional, understanding the marketplace, and really giving back to the markets that we enter,” Brody says. “I think we’ve been successful at doing that in Wilmington and Greenville. We want to continue to do more of that in the future.”

A bright future it appears to be, too. By 2010, Brody hopes to grow his company’s portfolio from 1 million square feet to 3 million square feet through the development of several more town centers.

“I like the challenges that complex projects such as town centers present,” he says. “It’s a sense of pride to build something first-class, to see it come to life, to have tenants go into it and watch their success. It’s a sense of pride in doing a good job.”

The BrodyCo cachet is creating first-class projects in middle to smaller markets — and creating them as if they were being built on the choicest piece of land in the Inland Empire, California, or on Fifth Avenue in New York City. BrodyCo uses only the best design teams, doesn’t cut corners on its way to delivering a product, and doesn’t try to squeeze every last nickel out of a budget. Cutting corners wasn’t the family way of doing business years ago when Brody’s family owned Brody Brothers Dry Goods department store, and it’s not going to be the family way of doing business now.

“Our stores, though in smaller markets, were first-class stores,” Brody says. “They were profitable, good stores. They were able to attract Mr. Martin to come in and look at what we were doing. It’s the same type of feeling here: if you look at the projects that we’ve done, we’ve always tried to do first-class projects and not skimp on architecture or skimp on operation and upkeep. If you build a first-class project, being sensitive to the cost factors, you’ll do well. We’re in this for the long haul, so we want to do it right.”

MAYFAIRE TOWN CENTER TO ANCHOR MAYFAIRE PROJECT IN WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA Mayfaire Town Center, Wilmington, North Carolina. With the nearest market being Raleigh, North Carolina, 123 miles to the west, the coastal town of Wilmington, North Carolina, could be considered, at first glance, a bit isolated. Its nearest neighbor, after all, is the vast Atlantic Ocean. Yet despite this — or perhaps because of it — there exists enormous demand for major market retailers in this small but growing middle market. Perhaps such pent-up demand is due to the 1.5 million tourists who visit the area’s pristine beaches during the summer months. Or perhaps it’s due to the town’s growing film industry. After all, movie and television stars must shop. Whatever the reason, Wilmington demands big-time retail — no doubt about it. Mayfaire, a $200 million, 394-acre mixed-use development of Greenville, North Carolina-based BrodyCo, Inc. and Wilmington-based Zimmer Development Company, plans to deliver on that demand. Mayfaire Town Center. Located at Eastwood and Military Cutoff roads in the Landfall Commercial corridor, on the site of the old Hardy-Parker farm, Mayfaire will anchor the southeastern portion of the state as a regional destination. The development will consist of Mayfaire Town Center, a 750,000-square-foot open-air shopping district with upscale retail; Mayfaire Community Center, a 200,000-square-foot neighborhood retail center; Mayfaire Townview (163 luxury lofts located above ground-level retail); Village at Mayfaire (200 luxury condominiums); The Reserve at Mayfaire (275 Class A apartments); Parkside (110 single-family homes); Mayfaire Business Park, a 250,000-square-foot office development; and two hotels. Mayfaire will also be home to at least 100 acres of preserved wetlands entrusted to North Carolina State University, as well as a community park with soccer and baseball fields. “Phase I of Mayfaire opened in March 2004, and throughout this year we’ve added additional retailers to fill in Phase I, and now we’re working into Phase II,” says H.J. Brody, president and CEO of BrodyCo, Inc. and co-manager of Mayfaire One, LLC, a principal developer of the project. A rendering of the 16-screen movie theater at Mayfaire Town Center. Consolidated Theatres opened in the space in January 2005. Part of Phase II includes Consolidated Theatres, which opened at 16-screen movie theater in January, and an O2 Fitness, which opened a 14,000-square-foot health club in January. Several new restaurants, such as Macaroni Grill and Fox & Hound, will open between now and June. The Mayfaire Community Center, occupied by Harris Teeter, On The Border, Chick-fil-A and other community-driven retail users, will open this summer. “I think the best thing is, since the [March 2004] opening, the retailers have experienced very good sales,” Brody says. “We had a very good holiday season. We’re also getting a lot of additional interest from new retailers that are coming into the marketplace.” Tenants new to Wilmington include Hecht’s, Williams-Sonoma, Coldwater Creek, Jos. A. Bank, Consolidated Theatres, Macaroni Grill, Linens ‘n Things, Michaels, Chico’s and Fox & Hound. Some retailers, such as Barnes & Noble and Kirkland’s, relocated from existing locations in the market to join Mayfaire. By this summer, Brody expects that approximately 600,000 square feet of Mayfaire’s retail space will be complete. Then, he says, it’s time to start on the residential units located above the retail. Approximately 90 percent of the units in Phase I are already pre-sold. “I think the community has received it very well,” Brody says. “The comments we’ve gotten are very, very positive.” Main Street at Mayfaire Town Center. He adds that, because Wilmington is a popular vacation and weekend destination, many of the regular vacationers and second-home owners are accustomed to a certain caliber of shopping center — and they expect Mayfaire to deliver those same high standards. This is precisely what challenged the developers to put a project of such grand scope and stature in a small town. The demand was there. “They come in from environments where the stores they’re used to seeing aren’t represented in Wilmington,” Brody says. “So they want to see these stores.” Another aspect of Mayfaire that makes residents and tourists feel welcome is the 100 acres of green space and parks, complete with jogging trails and playing fields. Best of all, the parks are available to taxpayers at no cost — thanks to funding by BrodyCo and Zimmer Development. Brody and Zimmer knew they wanted Mayfaire’s architecture to be reminiscent of the grand old homes and small-town storefronts of Old Wilmington. To that end, they commissioned Atlanta-based Cooper Carry Architects to design the retail portion of the project, which utilizes 24 different kinds of brick and reflects the architectural diversity and character found in an old downtown. “What we’re trying to do is create something that’s unique to Wilmington,” Brody says. “People feel like they can come to this one place to work, to play, to shop and to live.” — Katie Foxworth