Mike Bush – Pioneer of Diversity in Commercial Real Estate (#29)

Mike Bush Bio Mike Bush currently is an Adjunct Professor Urban Development for the Masters in Real Estate Program at Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies and founder of Project REAP. During his 20-year tenure as Vice President Real Estate for Giant Food, they opened or replaced 60 stores and expanded dozens more in one of the country’s most competitive trade areas. He directed market research, promotions to developers and municipalities, feasibility analysis, site selection, leasing and acquisitions, entitlement, and capex approval. He developed Giant’s first successful mixed-use unit with structured parking, and personally led successful campaigns to persuade citizen groups, elected officials, and staff to modify zoning to accommodate Giant stores. Bush created the Retail Development course for the Georgetown Master’s program in 2011, and has taught in the Master’s programs at Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland as well. He is active in ICSC, most recently leading a Roundtable at the University of Shopping Centers. He serves on the membership committee of the DC Building Industry Association, with special attention to its operating committees serving professionals in environmental regulation, retail, construction, affordable housing, and capital markets. He founded and developed the property management curriculum for Project REAP – the Real Estate Associate Program – now operated nationwide by a consortium of ICSC, ULI, NAIOP, BOMA, and NMHC. Bush began his career as a corporate lawyer specializing in real estate, banking, and finance. He went to law school at Harvard (LL.B. 1968) and to college at Stanford (B.A. 1965), where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors in Humanities. In 2012 Bush launched Long Lead, a career planning service, in response to students and practitioners asking him how to choose or change careers. Show Notes Mike Bush formed Project REAP in 1997 to bring minority people into the real estate industry while he was at Giant Food. He reached out to landlords to find out why they had not hired minorities. (6:15)Raised by parents that had a community orientation that planted the seed in his mind (8:30)Weekend project to recruit and educate minority young people while at Giant (9:40) Origins Grew up in Phoenix, AZ with parents who were active in the Jewish community (10:20)Father was a shoe store owner (11:20)Stock boy for his Father and then worked in a department store in sales (12:15)Selling shoes was an “interesting profession” (13:30)Public High School- Lived on North Side of Phoenix (14:00)Bookworm in HS because he had difficulty with athletics (14:55) Education Attended Stanford University (15:25)Wanted to be on the Crew teamCrew distracted him from his academics (16:00)Card sections at football games (16:25)Story about a prank the Cal students tried to impose on Stanford football players (17:45)“Dry” campus- Story about drinking beer (19:10)Initially interested in medicine (19:40)Story about a frog experiment (20:30)As a Jewish kid, you went into law if you didn’t like medicine (21:30)Went to Harvard Law and didn’t like it too much (21:50) Career Arc