ICSC+CENTERBUILD is one of the brightest stars in ICSC’s constellation of events, thanks to the hard work of volunteers like Gordon “Skip” Greeby Jr., Ronald Altoon and other construction and design professionals who helped it grow from a niche conference into a major affair. This year, a Dec. 1 reception during ICSC+CENTERBUILD in Phoenix will celebrate the event’s 40th anniversary. The overall gathering has become known as the Marketplaces Industry’s annual confab of construction, design and architecture professionals.

When ICSC first held the event in New Orleans in 1982, it was called the Design & Construction Conference. It went dormant for four years and was reborn in 1987 with the catchy title CENTERBUILD. The event alternated between Phoenix and Florida for 10 years until a hurricane interrupted the event in 1997 and convinced the planning committee to settle permanently on Phoenix.

In 1989, The Greeby Cos. chair Skip Greeby joined the planning committee, which works with ICSC meeting planners on content and event execution. At the time, eight ICSC volunteers worked on the event, and attendance was a less-than-stellar 185. “I’m often called the founder of CENTERBUILD, but at the time it felt like I was captain of the Titanic,” he said. Despite being a rookie on the committee and at planning events, Greebey took on the role of committee chair. “ICSC told me: ‘If you don’t get 300 attendees in 1990 then that’s the last year of this event,’” he said. Now, a week after the event celebrated its 40th birthday, the planning committee numbers 40 members, five times as many as in 1989.

Greeby took the role seriously, revamped the committee and applied principles learned in the U.S. military to running it. “I put in my young business associates who I knew would bleed CENTERBUILD blood. I said: “I want 15 names from each of you, and I’m going to check every one to make sure they come.’ It was a mission we couldn’t fail.”

And they did not. CENTERBUILD attracted 350 attendees in 1990 to the Sheraton Bonaventura, an unqualified success that ensured the future of the event. In 1991, Greeby took on a second year as chair but added an assistant chair position to serve as a training ground to take over the next year. Greeby also created an advisory council made up of past committee chair to advise on topics and to select the new committee members. Today, Greeby’s son Garrett, president and CEO of The Greeby Cos., serves on the board of ICSC+CENTERBUILD, as the event is now called.

Attendance reached 2,200 in 2017. And while it was canceled at the height of the pandemic in 2020, it came back strong in 2021 with 1,300 attendees. “It was quite phenomenal and impressive for a first time after the pandemic and the exit from the industry and ICSC of so many construction and design sector members,” Greeby said. The ongoing success of the event was a source of validation within ICSC for the design and construction sector, which often felt it played ancillary roles relevant to development, leasing and marketing professionals, Greeby said.

One reasons ICSC+CENTERBUILD is so popular is the relaxed vibe of the event. “At CENTERBUILD hard-selling is verboten,” Greeby said. It’s a social event versus a dealmaking event. “The heart and soul of CENTERBUILD is social: meeting new people and following up afterward, no plans on the tables.”

At one point, ICSC meeting planners wanted to add a trade show, but the committee said the idea flew in the face of the atmosphere they were trying to create. A sales-free environment enabled the event to draw senior design and construction people at the big development companies because they knew they wouldn’t be hit up for business, Greeby said.

ICSC+CENTERBUILD became a social event, with half of attendees bringing spouses. When then ICSC chair Brad Hutensky attended for the first time in 2013, he was impressed with the tight-knit nature of the group and their dedication to sharing ideas.

Angelo Carusi of Cooper Carry relished his tenure as chair of the event’s planning committee. “There’s some anxiety about some of the changes afoot in our industry,” he said, “but I know that solutions will emerge from conferences like ours because that’s where the deep thinking happens.”

That deep thinking continues today at the event via a robust program crafted by a committee of dedicated volunteers who “bleed CENTERBUILD,” in Greeby’s words. He said. “I tell young folks if they can only go to one ICSC event, go to CENTERBUILD. It’s about the education and the relationships.”