ICSC volunteers. Those magnanimous, behind-the-scenes loyalists who tirelessly organize conferences, nurture up-and-coming talent, advocate for public policy changes and fulfill countless other tasks. They are, in many ways, the eyes and ears of the organization. Few such altruists have labored longer or harder in the pursuit of industry advocacy and volunteer recruitment than Detroit-area ICSC activist Ed Eickhoff.

Inclined toward introversion, the Warren, Michigan, native found that volunteerism helped draw him out throughout his career. “The more you volunteer, the more you become extroverted and the more friends you make,” he said. “It’s opened so many doors; I literally have friends around the world because of my volunteer work.”

His 32-year volunteer career with ICSC started in 1990 on the Michigan ICSC State Committee, where he’s been a fixture since. He served as state director from 1996 to 1997 and 2004 to 2006 and as Government Relations Chair from 2013 to 2016 and then 2020 to the present.

Larger roles ensued. In May 2017, Eickhoff became ICSC Central Division Government Relations Chair, and a year later, he was appointed to the national ICSC Political Action Committee board. “I volunteer because I enjoy it,” he said. “It gives me that sense of accomplishment in doing something that matters.”

The seeds for Eickhoff ’s selflessness were planted in his formative years. He credits giving, middle-class parents and the kindness of public school teachers at his hometown Carlson Elementary who were conscientious enough to recognize him “as a kid who had a head on his shoulders,” he recalled. “My fourth and sixth grade teachers were the first of several over the years I bonded with and who started me thinking about and taking appropriate courses to be prepared for college and a professional career.”

To earn his way through Oakland University, located between Flint and Detroit, Eickhoff sold meat for a local distributor. As he wound down coursework for his economics degree in 1985, a college advisor asked what he planned to do with his diploma. He responded: “I’m not sure, but I know what I don’t want to do: sell meat.”

He then casually mentioned a profession that did pique his interest: commercial real estate. His advisor’s eyes lit up. It turns out that Barry Klein, founder of locally based Barry M. Klein Realty Enterprises, was president of the school’s alumni society. A meetup was arranged, and Eickhoff landed his first commercial real estate gig, spending 18 months learning the trade under Klein, a longtime ICSC Michigan policy activist himself, before Eickhoff moved on to Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust.

Eickhoff spent over three decades with the high-profile REIT, tackling a diversity of management challenges from vice president of leasing to vice president of asset management to executive vice president of development and construction. All had one commonality: leasing. “Leasing is the backbone and bread-and-butter of shopping center development, and successful relationships with your tenants is the foundation for the long-term success of your project,” he said.

During his Ramco days, Eickhoff earned the ICSC William M. Sulzbacher Government Relations Leadership Award in November 2013 and the ICSC Trustees’ Distinguished Service Award in 2018. He departed Ramco after a senior management restructuring, but his career was far from over. “You might get the feeling I’m a workaholic,” he ventured.

The health club business always had fascinated Eickhoff, a longtime fitness enthusiast. So in 2019, he seized on a pair of complementary opportunities in the Detroit area. He took on the COO reins at PFMG Development — a franchise group of 50 Planet Fitness clubs for which he’s responsible for development, acquisition, leasing and operations — and Evolution CRE, a redeveloper of distressed and underutilized properties that offers synergy with Planet Fitness real estate plays.

Recognizing a dearth of advocacy in that arena, Eickhoff soon founded the Michigan Fitness Club Association, a timely move as it turns out. “COVID hits, and suddenly we have 50 leases needing rent deferrals or abatements,” he said. Revenue plummeted after state-mandated club closings, he said, “and we saw health clubs unfairly getting a black eye in the pandemic.” So Eickhoff ’s association began pressing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for a swift club-reopening protocol. It cited centers’ efficient air-filtration systems and data showing that clubs don’t spread COVID and stressed that lack of physical inactivity is counter to the COVID fight. To bring awareness to the industry’s plight, Eickhoff staged a Boot Camp at the Capitol event. The net result: Whitmer signed an executive order allowing clubs to reopen earlier than many other businesses, quoting the association in a press release on the decision.

Eickhoff is frustrated that fitness clubs are still looked upon as mere recreation — at least legislatively. “But the industry is an important part of the health care-delivery system, helping with things such as diabetes and other comorbidities simply by getting people off the couch,” he said.

Also a longtime volunteer with his alma mater, Eickhoff has chaired Oakland University’s Economics Department board of advisors since 2007. He’s served as a speaker at numerous ICSC conferences and has been active with the Urban Land Institute and global health and fitness association IHRSA. In April, he appeared on an IHRSA panel called Fitness Industry Advocacy.

Eickhoff also serves behind the scenes in such pivotal roles as a judge for the ICSC Foundation Scholarship Program, which awards nearly 100 academic scholarships annually. He’s also a backer and treasurer of the nonprofit Cabaret 313, which brings traditional cabaret singers to the area six times annually.

In his years of ICSC service, Eickhoff has recruited countless ICSC members and volunteers by both example and suggestion, many going on to hold key state and national ICSC posts. “I choose to surround myself with passionate, like-minded kind of volunteers who want to make a difference,” he said.

Eickhoff said sharing knowledge is one of the most valuable services ICSC offers. “There’s much that you, as business operator, can share with competitors without it costing you business; there’s strength in numbers in promoting the industry.”

One of the biggest benefits of volunteer advocacy through ICSC state committees and subcommittees “is that it gets people involved and allows them to learn about the business and promote local and regional business programs,” said Eickhoff. “Plus, all the entry-level state committees feed into the national committees, so everybody benefits.”

Issues abound for ICSC policy experts like Eickhoff these days. “We always have to keep an eye on taxes, including [legislative] movements to tax carried interest as ordinary income and restrict capital gains,” he said. “Another emerging issue is organized financial crime, and we are also keeping an eye on cannabis, immigration and cryptocurrency.”

How does the multitasking Eickhoff accommodate all the demands on his time? “I lead a very structured life,” he said. “I’m very organized and sleep only six and a half hours a day.” In his scant spare hours, Eickhoff enjoys working out, travel and spending time with his spouse and their teacup Havanese. He’s partial to historical fiction and such publications as The Wall Street Journal, WWD and Politico. “Reading is so important because it exposes you to a lot of different experiences,” he said.

Certainly, Eickhoff ’s decades-long volunteering tenure with ICSC “sometimes feels like a second job,” he admitted, “but it is a labor of love. Once a volunteer, always a volunteer.”