David Grant put off his retirement to help Orange County’s largest shopping center navigate unprecedented waters. However, South Coast Plaza’s longest-running employee will spend the next few weeks wrapping up decades of work as he moves on from the day-to-day of the center at the end of the year.
Grant, who was handpicked by South Coast Plaza founder and his father-in-law Henry Segerstrom to join South Coast, came to the center in 1977. He was named general manager in 1995.
Since then, he’s helped South Coast Plaza, which recorded $1.6 billion in taxable sales for the year ended June 30, through its transformation to an international shopping destination, tending to a tenant roster that has included exclusives and first on the West Coast retailers in addition to annual events such as the Lunar New Year celebrations.
Grant will stay on in an active consulting capacity, he said, but the retirement gives him and his wife time to now turn to their Ventura County lemon and avocado farms and outdoor bookstore Bart’s Books in Ojai.
Grant recently reflected on last year and his overall time at the center with the Business Journal. An edited Q&A; with the veteran retail center manager follows.
Can you talk about your decision to retire as general manager at the end of this year and why it made sense for you?
I originally planned to retire when I turned 70, two years ago. At the time, having spent 42 years of my life and career at South Coast Plaza, I was already planning to focus on personal pursuits, including traveling with my wife, Andrea, and attending to our other interests, such as our agricultural businesses in Ventura County.
However, the pandemic happened so I postponed my retirement to help South Coast Plaza get through a very critical time.
I’m moving on from day-to-day operations at South Coast Plaza, but will remain in an active consulting capacity.
Let’s take a step back and turn to last year. What was the experience of leading the center in the midst of a pandemic?
There’s no doubt that in recent modern history, the pandemic was one of the biggest challenges faced by the world, and South Coast Plaza was no different.
Leading the center through that experience was intellectually demanding and fast-paced, and working on solutions to help those around us survive was gratifying.
Did you find that any of your prior experiences as the center’s GM helped you to navigate through COVID?
I drew from all of my experiences in helping and supporting tenants and customers.
Throughout my career at South Coast Plaza, collaboration with outside agencies, our tenants and other businesses was always critical to our success, so I drew upon all of those relationships and experiences during the pandemic.
We pivoted and opened The Pavilion and offered curbside pickup, both of which involved harnessing the ideas, abilities, and skills of all of our people and our partners.
We knew that open-air centers were allowed to conduct business, so we had to think of how to create an open-air environment.
I was out in one of our parking garages when the idea of an outdoor space struck me. I called city officials and presented the problem and our proposed solution to build suites that allowed open air to circulate and had walls that didn’t rise all the way to the ceiling. The city approved the construction of The Pavilion at South Coast Plaza—19 elegant, open-air furnished suites in our north parking structure for all retailers to use as showrooms to safely meet with their customers.
What’s the biggest change/shift among visitors to shopping centers that has taken place when you think about the retail landscape South Coast Plaza operates in today, versus when you were first named GM of the center in 1995?
The cultural diversity of Southern California and growth of international retail tourism at South Coast Plaza were phenomenal changes. We are known to attract visitors from more than 50 countries around the world.
What is it about South Coast Plaza that you think has allowed it to buck a lot of the challenges that many other shopping centers in the region and throughout the rest of the country have ended up succumbing to?
It all goes back to innovation, the guest experience, the tenant mix and being in sync with the rise of the luxury category.
South Coast Plaza was an early adopter of luxury retailing. As the demand for luxury goods rose and as the Southern California population got bigger and more urbanized, we became an attraction as a part of the Southern California lifestyle, not just to locals but also to tourists from all over the world.
It’s a case of being in the right place at the right time with the right offering. To have so many important luxury and contemporary retailers under one roof continues to be unprecedented in California.
What’s a retail trend you’ve seen across your time as GM that, at the time, seemed like the future of retail but it never really took and you’re glad it didn’t?
There was a time when shopping center mail-order catalogs were supposed to be a trend. We looked into it but decided it wasn’t the right way to reach our customers. The concept never really took off.
Everyone tries to guess about the future of retail and where it’s going. What’s the greatest challenge and what’s the greatest opportunity the retail industry faces?
It’s technology and how to choose and use the right technology that makes sense for our shopping center.
What are you most proud of having accomplished during your time at South Coast?
Growing our tourism business is one of them. Developing our security program, modernizing engineering, developing in-house services that benefit all our tenants and our customers, adopting and fostering a five-star hospitality mentality.
