This is a challenge for many in the industry — which is why ICSC’s charitable arm has decided to make talent development its primary focus. Earlier this year the ICSC Foundation launched the Talent Incubator Project, a multifaceted collaboration with ICSC’s student-engagement and Partners in Diversity & Inclusion teams to develop a pipeline of talent for the retail and retail real estate sectors.

The initiative was unveiled at an ICSC Foundation Talent of Tomorrow reception at RECon on Sunday, with many Foundation scholarship recipients — as well as participants in the Talent Incubator Project’s new mentorship and university-partner programs — in attendance.

“We decided to reboot [the Foundation] and make talent development its sole focus,” said Foundation President Lauri Novick, who joined ICSC in 2017 and subsequently embarked on a listening tour to gather input from members on their vision for the Foundation, established in 1988. “The industry is changing fast, and new talent needs are emerging. To keep pace, member companies need bright, ambitious and diverse talent to drive the industry forward,” said Novick, a lawyer by training who, prior to joining ICSC, led a nonprofit organization that helps low-income students graduate from college.

Recruiting has become a challenge for the entire commercial real estate industry, according to the 2019 Deloitte Commercial Real Estate Outlook. The majority of institutional investors surveyed for the report said the industry appears unprepared to recruit and retain Millennials and members of Generation Z and to fill the vacancies being created by retiring baby boomers.

What has led to the so-called recruitment crisis? The tight job market is only part of the problem, asserts Novick. Many young adults may be reluctant to pursue careers in retail or retail real estate because of the media spotlight on recent challenges within these sectors, she says. “The misinformed perception is that e-commerce will put brick-and-mortar retail out of business,” Novick said.

What is more, many college students and young professionals are unaware of the opportunities that exist in the shopping center industry, which has historically been concentrated in the hands of family-run companies. “A lot of students from underrepresented groups don’t even know about this industry,” Novick said. “When they think of real estate, they only think of houses and apartments.”

As it has for many years, the Foundation will continue to award dozens of academic scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students studying real estate or related fields at accredited schools. But with the launch of the Talent Incubator Project, the Foundation has also begun offering scholarship recipients support services designed to foster engagement in the industry. For instance, scholarship recipients participate in the Foundation’s new mentorship program, receive all-expenses-paid trips to RECon or other conferences and are invited to attend special educational programs and networking events.

“We really built these scholarships out to bring students closer to the industry,” said Novick. “It’s the networking opportunities, exposure to industry mentors and other ancillary components that help to bring young talent into an industry.”

A key component of the Talent Incubator Project is a yearlong formal mentorship program that matches industry volunteers up with students. The mentorship program is open to any student interested in learning about the industry, not just to Foundation scholarship recipients. To develop a mutual understanding of expectations, mentors and mentees sign an agreement before starting the program that outlines the frequency, nature and duration of their planned meetings and students’ primary objectives for the program.

Read more: Meet the people who make the retail real estate industry run

A second cohort of students will start the program in September, says Novick, noting that she expects participation to grow over time. The first cohort of mentors included such industry leaders as Edward M. Kobel, president and COO of DeBartolo Development; ICSC Trustee and Executive Board member John R. Morrison, CRX, CDP, former president and CEO of Choice Properties REIT; James Wittman, CCIM, CRX, CLS, CRRP, senior vice president and COO of Regency Properties; and Robin McBride Zeigler, executive vice president and COO of Cedar Realty Trust.

Anisha Yadav, an MBA student at Indiana University, was part of the first cohort of students in the mentorship program. Yadav has already worked in the industry, having managed several centers for Simon. But the mentorship program, which paired her with Regency Properties’ Wittman, allowed her to deepen both her knowledge of the business and her passion for it.

“The visit [to Regency’s headquarters] reminded me why I love retail real estate and what drove me to want to grow within the industry through furthering my education,” Yadav wrote in a letter reflecting on her experience. “That education went beyond the classroom, thanks to Jim [Wittman] and ICSC’s mentorship program.”

The mentorship program is also intended to foster greater diversity in the industry by engaging students from universities that serve large numbers of first-generation college students and/or minority groups. Cedar Realty Trust’s Zeigler mentored a student from her alma mater, Florida A&M University (FAMU), a historically black college and university in Tallahassee, Fla. Zeigler, a Foundation board member, not only “engaged in the traditional mentoring relationship,” Novick says, but also helped to cover the cost of sending her mentee to ICSC’s New York Deal Making conference.

Read more: Outreach brings more women of color into retail real estate

Zeigler has also offered the FAMU student an internship at Cedar Realty Trust this summer. The company is one of about 15 ICSC member firms that have posted openings in the Talent Incubator Project’s new internship program, which launches this summer. The paid internships give students an opportunity to gain hands-on industry experience, and students hired through the program are invited to participate in the Foundation’s mentorship program and to receive additional financial support, if eligible.

To that end, the Talent Incubator Project has also rolled out a university partnership program that gives students at participating schools unlimited ICSC student memberships, discounts to ICSC events and conferences, access to on-campus guest lecturers, networking opportunities and other benefits. So far about 15 schools have signed up, and more are in the process of doing so.

“These universities are on the front lines with the talent our members want to attract,” Novick said, “and we plan to work in partnership with them to help them develop that talent.”