JOHN M. MILLAR
Executive Vice President

John M. Millar, Executive Vice President and Principal of Divaris Real Estate, Inc. has developed a reputation over 38 years in the retail real estate business, as a consummate strategic planner and trusted advisor. Hired by Jordan Marsh-Florida Department Stores right out of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia as their Director of Market Research, Millar worked with Simon, DeBartolo and The Rouse Company to set Jordan Marsh-Florida’s site selections throughout the East Coast and Central region of Florida as part of Jordan Marsh’s ten-year strategic plan. As Regional Vice President of Thalhimer Department Stores, Hampton Roads Division, from 1974 to 1980, Millar worked with Alpert Development (Military Circle Mall), Mall Properties (Coliseum Mall) and Simon Properties (Lynnhaven Mall) to locate, build and open Thalhimer stores in their malls.

From 1980 through 1988, Millar was Senior Vice President of Property Management for Goodman Segar Hogan. Starting from scratch, he developed a Third Party portfolio of regional malls for institutional investors, such as Prudential, St. Paul Companies and First Chicago’s “Fund F,” which became the 24th largest in the United States. Millar set the strategic plans for the remerchandising and redevelopment of such malls as Smithhaven Mall, Smithtown, NY; Moorestown Mall, Moorestown, NJ and Mazza Gallerie, Washington, DC.

In 1988, Millar became a partner in charge of Mall Management for The Center Companies, which was subsequently acquired by General Growth in 1989. With the newly merged companies, he was a member of the Office of the President in charge of management of the combined 77-mall portfolio. Ultimately, he headed up all aspects-leasing, management, marketing and redevelopment of GGP’s Third Party portfolio of 55 malls. As the Third Party group redeveloped regional malls for institutional investors, Millar set the strategic planning for over 100 regional malls, as malls were sold off and new malls added. He oversaw the redevelopment of 46 malls, totaling $400 million in investment. Millar also consulted internationally in such diverse cities as Taipei, Taiwan; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Singapore; and Beirut, Lebanon.

From 2000 to 2002, Millar was Executive Vice President for Jones Lang LaSalle’s retail group in charge of all regional mall functions, including leasing, management, marketing and redevelopment. During that time, he reorganized the retail group and brought a strategic planning process to all malls in the portfolio.

Since 2002, Millar has been Executive Vice President of Divaris Real Estate, Inc. In this capacity, he has been intimately involved in mixed-use town center projects, (www.statecollegetowncenter.com; www.vabeachtowncenter.com; and www.villageatvalleyforge.com;) and redevelopment strategies for obsolete regional malls, such as Springfield Mall, Springfield, VA; Biltmore Square Mall, Asheville, NC; and Waccamaw Factory Shoppes, Myrtle Beach, SC. Millar has been a consultant for three university town center projects for Penn State, Texas A&M and Wake Forest University. He also was hired by a public mall REIT to create strategic plans for five of their regional malls. He has recently been retained by Iowa City/University of Iowa to create a strategic retail plan for Downtown Iowa City.

Throughout his career, Millar has combined his research background with his operational background to create strategic plans that weigh the market demographics, the market’s hidden economies (college towns, resorts, military influences and fast growing “edge” cities), retail competition, analogue properties in other cities and merchandising voids in the marketplace. He not only understands the history of retail real estate, but also understands the trends and the retail evolution that continually occurs.

John, a Certified Senior Shopping Center Manager (SCSM), has been a faculty member of the University of Shopping Centers, a speaker at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Convention in Las Vegas, a speaker for the ICSC Management and Marketing Conference and served on the ICSC Design and Development Awards Committee for ten years. Millar is also an Urban Land Institute full member and an ICSC member. Millar presented his ‘white paper,’ “Generational Crossroads at College Towns: Opportunities for Mixed-Use College Town Centers,” to the Association of University Real Estate Officials (AUREO) at their annual conference in Vancouver, B.C. in September 2007. Subsequently, he has made presentations to the 2009 Montreal AUREO Conference (Case Study of Texas A&M’s 90-acre Campus Pointe Project) and to the 2010 San Francisco AUREO Conference (Hidden College Town Economies: Attracting Retailers & Restaurants).

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Cornell University, and a Masters of Business Administration from The Darden School at University of Virginia.

Projects John has worked on include:

Anthropologie Signs Lease to Anchor ONE in Greenville, SC
Iowa City, University of Iowa to Partner on Downtown Study
State College Town Center Brings Upscale Lifestyle to University Town
DRE Focuses on Town Center Consulting
Big Changes for Biltmore Square Mall

To contact John, email: jmillar@divaris.com