Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Changing International Plaza gets new chief

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published September 28, 2005

TAMPA - Chris Balish, former chief operating officer of Tampa's RMC Property Group, has been named to the high-profile job of managing International Plaza.

Balish will be responsible for the upscale, 200-store mall, which houses 15 restaurants and a Marriott Renaissance hotel. He will be local point man for mall operator Taubman Centers Inc., replacing Aj Jemison, who had been promoted to run Taubman's Beverly Center in Los Angeles.

"We have a strong team here and I think the strongest tenant lineup in the market," Balish said.

He takes over the region's first mall to top $500 a square foot in sales as it settles in 12 new retailers this fall and winter, eight of which are new to the Tampa Bay area.

Regional newcomers Sephora and Anne Fontaine recently opened. The first Kenneth Cole, Steve Madden, Clark Shoes, Cafe Japon and Sony Store in the market are working to open before the holidays. Sigrid Olsen, a women's apparel brand sold in local department stores, plans to open a store after the holidays.

International Plaza also will break some new ground by keeping its regular holiday decorations in storage this winter thanks to an unusual marketing deal that Taubman, based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., signed with Walt Disney Co.

The mall is one of 11 Taubman properties that will be decked out in an elaborate interactive display promoting Disney/Walden Media's holiday release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

To promote the live action film's Dec. 9 release, Disney is recreating settings from the movie - centered around three huge snow globes - that will be erected in the mall and outfitted with lifelike figures of characters from the C.S. Lewis tale. Inside one globe the mall will offer kids photo opportunities with Santa or photos that place families in scenes from the film.

"The snow globes are huge," said Nina Mahoney, mall marketing director. "There will be simulated snow inside one."

Balish, 42, left RMC Property Group after almost two years as chief operating officer of the Tampa development company that operates 80 shopping centers and dozens of Walgreen drugstores across the state. The closely held firm, controlled by husband and wife Mitchell and Suzie Rice, is developing mixed-use condos with ground floor Publix supermarkets in Sarasota and Orlando.

During a 20-year real estate management career, Balish developed a foundation that provides at-risk inner city youths with full scholarships to his alma mater, Western Michigan University. He also is an amateur triathlete.

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

[Last modified September 28, 2005, 02:30:38]