Like clockwork, when the sun setsand Shabbat comes to an end, Pikesville’sClub Centre comes alive.
Home to such kosher establishmentsas Mama Leah’s Pizza and Goldberg’s New York Bagels, Club Centre looks morelike a nightclub than a shopping center on Saturday evenings, with hundreds offriends and family members gathering for fun and a late bite.
But 11 years ago, beforeAmerica’s Realty LLC purchased the complex, the scene was quite different.
“When we bought the center ithad 17 vacancies, and today it’s one of the few shopping centers you will seethat is 100 percent leased,” says Steve Verstandig, senior vice president ofAmerica’s Realty LLC. “One of the best feelings is when I drop my daughter offat Beth Tfiloh for school and see a picture of Club Centre hanging in thebuilding. What we have done has become intertwined in the community, and ourshopping centers are part of everyone’s daily lives.”
Founded in 1981 by Steve’sfather, Carl Verstandig, the Pikesville-based America’s Realty buys defunctshopping centers with large vacancies around the nation. With more than 300centers and approximately 13,000 tenants in 43 states, America’s Realty is oneof the largest independently owned developers in the United States.
“We have a niche,” says CarlVerstandig, president and CEO of America’s Realty. “Wherever we are in thecountry, we want to have the cheapest rent factor so we can have fulloccupancy. We aren’t the high-end stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord +Taylor, but rather blue collar-oriented across the board with a focus onma-and-pa service-oriented businesses.”
Carl Verstandig is nostranger to family business or the service industry. His parents, who were Holocaustsurvivors, moved to New York in 1947. The family — Carl, his sister and parents — livedin a one-bedroom apartment above a toy store, and his father worked in a beltfactory.
They moved to Baltimore whenCarl was 6, and his parents bought a small neighborhood grocery store on AikenStreet, with the family living above the store. “My family moved to Baltimorebecause my mother’s relatives lived here, owned the grocery store and said myparents could be self-employed here,” says Carl, now 65. “We lived on top ofthat store for 12 years, and as a kid I would work at the store after school.Being Holocaust survivors, my parents made sure to teach us that family waswhat mattered and our Jewish heritage was the most important thing in theworld.”
Eventually, the family movedto Pikesville, but Carl’s parents continued driving downtown to work at thegrocery store until a robbery in 1972 in which Carl’s father was shot. A fewyears later, Carl and a few partners started their own grocery business,opening Kash and Karry, Warehouse Food Markets and Food Town. The businessstarted with a small store and grew to 35 locations within the Baltimore-Washingtoncorridor.
“After my father recoveredfrom his gunshot wound, he came to work with me at Kash and Karry,” recallsCarl. “Now, working with my son enhances what I was taught as a kid, which isfamily comes first. Working with my son is a pleasure and brings back memoriesof me working with my dad.”
Carl sold the grocery storesin 1986 and began his real estate venture, buying 20 vacant 7-Eleven buildings.That small portfolio has since grown into a $1.5 billion company.
“My father has set the barhigh,” says Steve, 36. “I’m proud of what he has accomplished. He has taught mea work ethic but also instilled in me that family comes first.”
Despite his father’s success,Steve wanted to earn his position at America’s Realty, as well as the respectof those in the real estate industry. Before working with his father, Steve starteda company called Citywide Properties LLC, which manages and leases shoppingcenters as well as works to renovate and lease historic commercial properties.
“I didn’t want people tothink I was given anything,” says Steve, who is in charge of leasing andoperations for America’s Realty. “I have since taken what I learned with mycompany and applied it to my father’s shopping centers. You don’t need higher-endtenants to be successful. You need the tenants that fill the need of the localcommunity.”
With that formula in mind,Steve has worked to lease their shopping centers to both independently ownedbusinesses like Bubala Indoor Playground, Masada Tactical and Amber Room DaySpa, as well as such chains as Food Mart, Kmart and Dollar Tree, to name a few.
America’s Realty is currentlyrevamping Kings Point Square in Randallstown, investing millions of dollars toredevelop the strip mall.
“We plant the seed, which inthis case is the businesses, and then we watch them flourish,” says Steve.“Seeing vacant spaces come to life excites me, and the fact I can do that in myown backyard is exciting. One of our biggest successes is seeing our tenantsgrow with us. This is more than a job; it’s our lifestyle. My father lives andbreathes what he does, and I am the same way.”
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