Q&A With Greg Hamm, GGP's New General Manager of Columbia

By Mark R. Smith, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Greg Hamm, regional vice president and general manager of Columbia for General Growth Properties (GGP), has more than 20 years of experience in real estate planning and development, and has been involved in some of the largest mixed-use projects in the Baltimore-Washington region.
Before joining GGP, Hamm was founding principal of the Reston Group, a Virginia-based real estate investment, development and consulting company that secured government entitlements for several major mixed-use projects. They included 450 residential units in Reston Town Center in Northern Virginia, a 68-acre mixed-use park in Manassas, Va., and a 500-unit resort development in Culpepper County, Va.
While at the Reston Group, he advised GGP on a potential mixed-use redevelopment of Landmark Mall in Alexandria, Va., and redevelopment of Tyson's Galleria in McLean, Va.
From 2000 to 2004, Hamm was a partner at Crimson Partners, where he planned and developed Dulles Station, a 2.7-million-square-foot office, retail and residential project located off Sunrise Valley Drive in Oak Hill, Va. His team of professionals also completed predevelopment of 500,000 square feet of office and retail space and 180 multi-family units.
Hamm served as managing director for CB Richard Ellis, McLean, Va., during 1999 to 2000, overseeing a team of 50 professionals serving the Baltimore-Washington region. During the '90s, Hamm was vice president and general manager of Terrabrook-Mobil, where he planned, developed (through joint ventures) or sold more than 3.5 million feet of office, retail, hotel and residential space in and around Reston Town Center. Prior to 1991, he held positions at Daniel Corp. and at The Staubach Co.
A graduate of Arizona State University, he received his master's of business administration degree from the College of William & Mary.

What are your feelings upon being ushered into the Columbia Town Center planning process just before GGP's four public forums and the unveiling of its draft master plan to the public on April 28?
It struck me as a remarkable opportunity to be involved in something as meaningful as charting the course for Columbia's next 30 years, so I'm kind of humbled. It's a once-in-a-career type of opportunity and is rich with promise. What we will discuss in the coming months, and ultimately on April 28, is just our interpretation of what Howard County and the community have been expressing during the past couple of years.

What will the local community learn upon the unveiling of the Town Center plan at GGP's four upcoming forums?
The first thing is that [a corporation making such an involved effort] is not typical of how developers unveil such plans around the country. Developers often play "hide the ball," but what we're doing is the exact opposite.
The first four meetings [the first had already been held by press time - ed.] will serve to introduce our team to the community so they can understand the level of expertise that has been involved in coming up with the solutions during the planning process. Subsequent meetings will focus on specific issues in greater detail.

When do you see the first new residents in Town Center moving in?
If all goes well, I suppose from the time we get zoned, they should be able to do so in 24 to 36 months.

How are land sales around Columbia to builders going these days? Or are they going at all?
To start with, we have a limited supply here. Residential home sales nationwide are obviously off significantly, but Howard County seems to be weathering the storm well. I think the flight tends to be toward quality in a soft market, and that's what seems to be happening.

GGP has been writing down the value of its land holdings. Why? What does it mean?
Virtually every nationwide entity that has residential land holdings writes down their assets in their residential portfolios. There is a tremendous slowdown in the economy and I think GGP responded accordingly. Nationwide, I think everyone is very bullish on Columbia and our holdings here.

Is the housing slowdown having any effect on GGP's plans for Emerson?
No. It's a great community and we know that cycles come and go. We believe that Emerson is a great product that is well-priced, so we will continue to do what we have been doing to market the community in the past.

The final report of the Merriweather Post Pavilion Citizen Advisory Panel (CAP) was released in March 2005. It included detailed plans for a five-year, $19.5 million renovation of the GGP-owned facility and its grounds. Yet, nothing has happened. Will it happen - in an expedient manner - under your watch?
Much of what happens with Merriweather will have to do with the whole redevelopment plan and program. We believe, as the Merriweather CAP did, that the pavilion plays an important role in the next phase of Columbia as an important part of the larger jigsaw puzzle. But we have to see how some of the other [components of the plan for Town Center] come into play before we can move forward.
Assuming that the other pieces of the plan fall into place, we want to make Merriweather a far more vibrant, meaningful link to Town Center. To the extent that we control the variables, we want to renovate the property in the early phases of [the overall] project.

Why is there still no long-term deal with an operator for Merriweather, which has also been promised for many years, in place?
We have hired a cultural master planner, Lord Cultural Resources from Toronto [which will present at GGP's next forum on Wednesday, March 19], to evaluate all of the cultural components of Columbia, ranging from the Columbia Orchestra to Columbia Pro Cantare to The Jim Rouse Theatre, so that includes Merriweather and the adjacent Toby's Dinner Theatre.
This will help us build on the findings of the CAP, in that it will reveal how the attractions can all link together. That type of approach was taken early on when Silicon Valley fostered its environment for business and the technology industry. We want to explore whether we can create that type of synergy here in our arts and cultural communities.

Why does the rest of what goes on in Town Center have to hold up the renovation of Merriweather, which has long been cited as a vital cog of the overall project?
Again, it's part of the overall investment strategy. We are making a large investment in Town Center and we have to understand the whole fabric of the community and project before investing significant sums of money in one component.

What have you found to be your biggest surprise so far?
The number of people who are truly committed to making Columbia a better place.

What do you consider your greatest success so far in your career?
I would say that I'm still working on that one. I hope I can answer that in a few years.