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Mall manager to trade Tampa for Beverly Hills

Aj Jemison, the only general manager International Plaza has ever had, is promoted to run a California mall.

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published July 9, 2005

Aj Jemison, who became a prominent community figure as the only general manager International Plaza has ever had, has been promoted to run one of the most prominent malls in the Taubman Centers Inc. portfolio.

Jemison moves on to Beverly Center, a landmark - but dated - shopping address near the Beverly Hills, Calif., city limit that's in need of a lift. Her replacement has not been named.

"I'm totally okay with it," said the 47-year-old manager after a teary-eyed farewell announcement Friday at the Tampa mall. "But I have to say I'm really heartsick about leaving the first city of the 11 I've worked in during my career that truly felt like home."

Competing against such luxury centers as Rodeo Drive and Century City, Beverly Center is a three-level mall built on top of a five-level parking garage.

The mall is anchored by Bloomingdale's and Macy's, but the tenant lineup is decidedly middle-of-the-road after the retail action in west Los Angeles shifted from the nearby Miracle Mile to newer projects.

Jemison led the Taubman operational team that arrived in 2000 to get International Plaza off the ground. After a stormy 2001 grand opening in the middle of tropical storm warnings just three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, International Plaza has grown into the most prosperous large retail space in the Tampa Bay market. With Neiman Marcus, Dillard's and Nordstrom, it is the first mall in the region to generate sales productivity topping $500 a square foot a year. It reached that milestone despite the closing of its fourth anchor, Lord & Taylor.

In her five years in Tampa, Jemison developed a civic profile. She is on the boards of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, the Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Childrens' Home and the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs.

A single mother, Jemison has reared a daughter (Franchiel, 29, a former Miss Tampa Bay USA who has developed her own clothing line), a son (Houston, a 21-year-old Army medic) and a niece (Katie, 6). Jemison also wrote a motivational book, is writing a children's book and drives a 750 Honda Shadow motorcycle on weekends.

Born in Malvern, Ark., she got her unusual first name from her father's initials. At 15, she lied about her age to get a sales job at a Tulsa, Okla., Dillard's. Later, she got into property management and landed a marketing degree, which led to her 12-year career at Taubman, which is now sending her to work at her seventh mall. International Plaza was the first one she ran from day one.

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified July 9, 2005, 01:01:15]