We enjoyed hosting a very talented group of college students in the Retail Real Estate Bridge Program, a collaboration between ICSC and Project Destined. This initiative is designed to educate students eager to pursue careers in retail real estate by offering them a firsthand look into the day-to-day operations at Vestar’s corporate office. During their visit, they learned about Vestar’s latest development projects, key investment strategies and asset management initiatives, followed by a tour of Desert Ridge Marketplace, one of our signature properties in the valley. Thanks to ICSC and Project Destined for their dedication and effort to help us find the future leaders for our industry.
Last Friday, we had the amazing opportunity to visit Vestar in its Arizona Headquarters as a part of ICSC Retail Real Estate Bridge Program powered by Project Destined. There, we learned more about Vestar's retail real estate investment strategy and toured Tempe Marketplace, one of their developments. I want to thank Miles Sanchez, Kean Thomas, Paul Asher, Ellie Curbo, Clint Marchuk, David Larcher, and Alexis Berger for taking the time to answer our questions and giving us a great introduction into the world of Retail Real Estate. It was amazing hearing the struggles you had to overcome to put together Tempe Marketplace and amazing to see its success. It was also very interesting to learn more about entitlement rights, the auction process, community approvals and all the complexities of putting a deal together. Special thanks to Cedric Bobo, and Irina Khachatryan for putting this program together.