CREJ - page 2

Page 2
— Retail Properties Quarterly — May 2016
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CONTENTS
Letter from the Editor
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A
s a manager or owner of a
retail property, one must be
as prepared as possible for
an unpredicted event – from
the most extreme cases of
an active shooter or terrorist attack to
weather calamities and crowd control.
Nick LeMasters,
general manager
of Cherry Creek
Shopping Center,
told attendees at
the April Rocky
Mountain Shopping
Center Association
lunch how his mall
prepares for the
unexpected, chiefly with a robust on-
site simulation training event supple-
mented with monthly meetings and
trainings.
These large training sessions are
done in partnerships with local public-
safety authorities and mall merchants
and are conducted once a year at 6
a.m. on a Sunday.This year’s scenario
was an active shooter on the premises.
The team debriefs after to determine
areas of vulnerability as well as iden-
tify areas of control.
LeMasters laid out several important
components when preparing for the
unexpected. He told the audience that
they would be naïve to think some-
thing won’t happen, and even more
naïve to think they don’t have any
responsibility if it does.
Most importantly, he wants his staff
to know they were as prepared as
they possibly could be. “We want to
say we’ve done everything possible to
ensure that the loss of life and property
damage is at a minimum,” he said.This
also helps protect the property’s repu-
tation in the aftermath of an incident.
When coordinating trainings, he
warned of apathetic merchants.When
merchants are engaged, they can aid
the response by sheltering custom-
ers, while the mall management
coordinates with the police. However,
getting merchants that knowledge
can be challenging. Cherry Creek now
invokes language in the leases that
demands merchant participation.
Communication often is the biggest
vulnerability. This can include com-
munication within the management
team, to the responding agencies, to
the merchants and to the customers
inside the mall. Managers should be
on a first-name basis with the local
public-safety chiefs responding to
incidents and with Xcel Energy reps,
he said.
LeMasters suggests sharing build-
ing plans digitally with first-response
agencies so officers can pull up the
plans on their laptops in an emer-
gency. Also, determine physical identi-
fiers, such as a Macy’s or Starbucks,
because these are helpful when guid-
ing officers through the mall – cardi-
nal directions tend to get confusing
once inside. Additionally, strategically
place blow horns throughout the
mall to communicate efficiently with
guests in an emergency.
Reputational damage resulting
from an incident at a property will be
lasting, so you must mitigate that as
much as possible through preemp-
tive planning and training, he said.
Wise words for all those managing
and owning retail properties in today’s
world.
Michelle Z. Askeland
303-623-1148, Ext. 104
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