Bio
Herb Miller founded Western Development Company in 1967 and serves as its Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Stockholder. A graduate in Urban Planning from George Washington University, Mr. Miller’s activities at WDC began with the development of six office buildings in Washington, DC from 1967 to 1985. During this time he guided the firm into retail development, taking the lead in developing twenty open-air neighborhood and community centers in eleven states from 1975 to 1987.
Herb Miller’s on-going interest in his home town led back to Washington and a series of complex mixed-use projects: Georgetown Park, an award winning retail, office and residential project; Washington Harbour, the only privately developed project on the Potomac River; and Market
Square, two mixed-use buildings with office space, retail space and residential units along Pennsylvania Avenue.
Intrigued by the changes sweeping U.S. retail in the mid-1980s. Mr. Miller led WDC to create the Mills Concept – the value oriented super regional mall. Opened in 1985, Potomac Mills in Woodbridge, Va. was the prototype of this concept. By 1987, WDC focused its expertise in expanding the Mills concept to other major metropolitan areas, opening Franklin Mills
(Philadelphia) in 1989; Sawgrass Mills (Ft. Lauderdale) in 1990 and Gurnee Mills (Chicago) in 1991.
To further expand The Mills concept, Mr. Miller founded The Mills Corporation in 1993, capitalized at $1.3 billion through a NYSE public offering. Mr. Miller retired from The Mills Corporation in 1995 in order to pursue other development opportunities in his hometown of Washington DC.
Between 1995 and 1996 Mr. Miller led the Mayor’s Interactive Downtown Task Force, a 100-member committee charged with re-vitalizing Washington’s central areas. Composed of over 100 key figures from the worlds of government, retail, entertainment, telecommunications,
housing advocacy, and recreation, the Task Force identified the development opportunities and economic incentives essential to attract a critical mass of retail, housing, and entertainment to downtown. The Task Force’s blue print has resulted in US$ 6.21 billion in private and public
expenditure including 5,242 new units of housing, 9 million square feet of office space, a new US$ 834 million Convention Center and new Museum of Washington DC within the old Carnegie Library.
His involvement with the Downtown Task Force led him to develop Gallery Place, which combined equal portions of retail/entertainment, residential and office space on a site bridging the Verizon Center and Washington’s Chinatown when it opened in the Spring of 2004.
Herb Miller is actively involved in civic affairs, including his memberships on the Boards of the Third Way and the Chesapeake Crescent, which he co-founded in 2007. In 2006, Mr. Miller was inducted into the Washington Business Hall of Fame.
Show Notes
Current
- Current project called River Point (conversion of office building to residential) 480 units next to Fort McNair in Southwest Washington with Chip Akridge and Tom Wilbur of the Akridge Company (3:20)
- Tall ceiling heights- 9′
- Including a waterfront market and restaurant with a “destination”
- DC Central Kitchen
- New Market- 10,000 s.f. (Spike Gjerde)
- Ray Kasten- Seafood Restaurant
Pandemic Issues
- Vaccine & election make things uncertain and insecure about future and how it affects any decisions (6:50)
Origin Story
- Herb Miller met JFK as a kid at the White House (10:00)
- Grew up in Silver Spring and recalls when the Beltway was built (10:30)
- Drove a Simca on the Beltway when it first opened (1962) (11:15)
- Virginia finished Beltway and thinks the Outer Beltway will never be built (12:45)
- Believes Baltimore should be connected to DC via Metro or Rapid Transit (13:30)
Education
- George Washington University- Studied Urban Planning (15:15)
- Logical change of people’s lifestyle vis a vis the built space (15:30)
- Deal with economic and racial issues (16:00)
- Decided to get a brokerage license after meeting with Jerry Wolman who told him to be a broker to learn value (16:40)
Career Arc
Brokerage
- Started at Floyd E. Davis Co.
- Shannon & Luchs (17:00)
- 80% of the market control
- Jimmy Salkeld– Desk piled full of papers and looked at pile and know deals along with Warren Montouri (20:10)
- Colonel Sanders was in the lobby to meet someone- KFC Founder (21:00)
- Brokers around for 20-30 yrs. (22:00)
- “Brought CB to Washington to lease Georgetown Park”- Boyd Van Ness (17:50)
- Development- Believed in Mixed Use project (22:30)
- Wisconsin and Western location- Olga Mazza was owner and he formed a venture with her to develop Mazza Gallarie (22:50)
- Called Stanley Marcus to bring Neiman Marcus to the site (24:00)
- President of Carter, Hawley Hale was at meeting with Marcus when he went to negotiate the deal (24:20)
Development
- Western Development Company (25:30)
- Secured site at Georgetown Park after optioning a site on M St. from Roy Chalk
- CB was the leasing agent
- Approval process was easier- Marion Barry brought in more Black administrators into DC Government (26:20)
- Cited story about seeing MLK in 1963 with former Mayor Vince Gray (27:00)
- Discusses Marion Barry, former Mayor’s educational background- PhD in Chemistry (27:45)
- Georgetown accepted Georgetown Park at the time (28:30)
- Garfinkels was only anchor in the mall at the time (29:50)
- The Gap‘s first store in the East (30:15)
- [Clydes](Clyde’s Restaurants) was already there, but their restaurant entered into project (31:05)
- More masochism than engineering problems (31:50)
- 21% prime rate (32:10)
- Washington Harbour (33:00)
- CSX Realty- Partner (33:20)
- Dedicated land land for project
- Two Presidents to get the project approved- Carter and Reagan (33:45)
- Largest flood in history flooded the parking garage (34:25)
- Fountain and Tower required by citizens (35:15)
- Idea of how Georgetown waterfront which was all industrial and envisioned it as a waterfront place for people to congregate (36:00)
- Whitehurst Freeway (36:45)
- Georgetown and Eva Hinton did not want a Metro stop (37:10)
- Mills Corporation– Potomac Mills (38:30)
- Over 100 acres (39:20)
- Waccamaw Pottery was the “hottest” anchor in “off price” retail in the country at the time (39:30)
- Ikea was in Canada at the time, but not in the US. He secured the first store at Potomac Mills (40:40)
- Retail manufacturers
- Off Price Retail (42:20)
- Safeway designated developer in DC (42:45)
- Site for Greenway Center to build large center for first Safeway “superstore” and added Marshall’s first store outside NY area (43:15)
- First off price center in the country (43:50)
- Marshalls was first “off price” retailer (44:10)
- T.J. Maxx (44:30)
- Montgomery Village 1 & 2 (45:10)
- Germantown
- Briggs Chaney
- Built in Dallas and Houston and Chicago (45:35)
- Nordstrom Rack (46:55)
- Needed higher volume (48:15)
- Mills Corporation evolution because of need to attract larger population
- Potomac Mills was the largest tourist attraction (49:10)
- Gurnee Mills– North of Chicago (49:40)
- Sawgrass Mills– South Florida (49:55)
- South Americans would shop there with empty suitcases (50:45)
- Built 6 Mills properties before going public (51:35)
- Tenacity and Determination (Reference to Ben Miller podcast) (52:20)
- When you’re a masochist you have to prove it! (53:25)
- Georgetown Park went well, but Washington Harbour was a nightmare (53:40)
- Market Square– PADC (Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation)- Competition among several developers
- When you are walking up stairs you don’t know if you‘re going up one floor or the Washington Monument (55:20)
- The Portals (56:00)
- Government offering that he won
- Difficult to deal with government in that they don’t look at time
- Balance between citizen groups and what makes sense
- Chase Bank was his banker until Washington Harbour when interest rates went up (56:50)
- Reagan redefined the CPI index definition by separating out some of the commodities that were irrelevant (57:40)
- Had to go public to help with financing (59:50)
- Entrepreneurship taken out of the company (1:00:15)
- Retail real estate is moving (1:00:40)
- Merger of Mills into Simon Properties (1:01:15)
- Local Task Force formed when DC was bankrupt in 1990s (1:02:45)
- City was divisive racially at that time (1:03:30)
- Marion Barry was unappreciated for his management skills (1:04:15)
- Federal Government was brought in to help (1:05:30)
- “Literally planned the city”- How to get housing, retail and transportation to really work (1:05:45)
- Gallery Place evolved from the Task Force (1:06:00)
- Abe Pollin (1:06:20)
- Found out about the Tiber Creek when digging to develop Gallery Place (1:06:40)
- Chip Akridge and Tom Wilber became his partner to develop the project and brought in the AFL-CIO Fund and the project was built union (1:07:15)
- Plan helped with infrastructure
- River Point (see above)
- Chesapeake Crescent (1:11:20)
- His initiative to bring the jurisdictions in the region together (DC, Maryland, Virginia)
- Admires Mark Warner in Virginia and Larry Hogan in Maryland (1:12:30)
- Bring Baltimore to DC via rapid transit (1:13:30)
- Purple Line challenges (1:15:45)
Market Conditions
- Retail development (1:17:00)
- Viability?
- LYDE- Internet shopping (1:17:30)
- Ubiquitous between shopping on line and street retail in a seamless way (1:17:50)
- Target is the smartest retailer in his mind (1:18:10)
- Consumer wants to see selection, price
- Women buy 80% of all goods- find an easy way to shop (1:19:00)
- Mall owner needs to inventory all of their stores to meet the needs of the shopper using technology (1:19:30)
- Walmart is a brilliant merchant (1:20:25)
- Understand your consumer and serve them as well as you can (1:21:00)
- Mall owners have to think like merchants
- Solve the needs of women in size and dealing with their children (1:22:20)
- Be a psychiatrist, as well (1:22:55)
- Synergy of mixed use
- Retail energize the street (1:23:45)
- Variety of services for people (1:24:05)
- Sense of community (1:24:30)
- Rich-Poor issue- components that give back to the community (1:24:45)
Philosophy
- Inspirational People
- Strains on Public spaces due to COVID restrictions and financial pressure (1:27:45)
- LIfe Priorities (1:28:40)
- Paige Grzelac
- Development team
- Moved to Easton, MD (1:22:30)
- Involved there to help planning there
- Family- Two separate families
- 77 yrs. old
- Wins (1:31:05)
- Mills Corporation
- Urban mixed use projects
- Being responsive to work with competent people
- Losses
- Fight between families (1:32:50)
- Having consistent vision out of the DC Government (1:33:15)
- Advice to 25 yr. old self- Find out what you’re interested in (1:33:50)
- Describes his chldren’s interests and says that it varies
- No person is alike and meeting their children’s nature (1:35:15)
- Billboard- “Be generous to your fellow man” (1:35:45)
- Turmoil from COVID virus to get back to getting communities back in shape and help people find opportunity for all Americans (1:36:10)
Postscript
- Tom Amos Questions (1:37:30)
- Tiber Creek (1:38:00)
- 1871- Enclosed into underground tunnel
- 1990s construction of Ronald Reagan Building caused issues with creek diversion
- Discussion of African American Museum
- Constitution Ave. was the waterfront (1:40:00)
- Listening to Herb contrasting with Ben Miller
- Discuss keeping up with changing markets
- Very determined people
- Herb- Envisioning of Georgetown (1:44:00)
- Ben- Give unaccredited investors the opportunity to invest (1:46:00)
- If you believe in something strongly enough, just keep going (1:48:00)
