{"id":1004101586,"date":"2014-07-31T11:43:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T19:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004101586"},"modified":"2022-12-08T17:42:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T01:42:25","slug":"executive-spotlight-joshua-simon-simoncre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/executive-spotlight-joshua-simon-simoncre\/","title":{"rendered":"Executive Spotlight: Joshua Simon, SimonCRE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Joshua<\/a>By Leah Etling, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n

Joshua Simon is just 28, but he has already managed to log a decade of experience in real estate\u2014an industry he joined as an intern for Sandor Development in Arizona at age 18. At age 24, he launched Phoenix-based SimonCRE, focusing on shopping center development, redevelopment and single-tenant build to suits. The company has projects scattered across the U.S., from California to Arkansas to Michigan.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it can be attributed to his youth, but Simon has no fear about undertaking ambitious repositioning projects in a city or state where he hasn\u2019t before done business. He relies on his team\u2019s research as well as local experts for information about market conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about relationships,\u201d he said, speaking from Detroit, where he was on a project scouting trip combined with a meet-up with Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert. Gilbert had invited Jewish community leaders to tour the Motor City\u2019s downtown and see the progress his real estate and finance companies have helped further. Simon, who is involved with numerous Jewish charitable organizations in Arizona, was interested in Gilbert\u2019s community-building efforts. Last year, SimonCRE made its first investment in Michigan: in a $7.6 million suburban shopping center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bankruptcy gives it a bad name, but Detroit is a thriving city. We became very comfortable with the market and the real estate and even got an out-of-state lender to finance it,\u201d Simon said. He\u2019s experienced the powerful impact that retail redevelopment can have on community wellbeing in Arkansas, where SimonCRE rehabilitated one former Walmart center in a small town\u2014a 90,000-square-foot center in Camden with just 5 percent occupancy when purchased\u2014and in early June closed on another, an 85,000-square-foot vacant property in Newport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an eyesore, and we came in and spent a couple million fixing everything up. Not only did the town benefit from not having an eyesore property any longer but the businesses that leased created between 70 and 100 jobs. That\u2019s a big deal for a small community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CPE: You went from the company that gave you your first job to forming your own company before you turned 25. What influenced that decision?<\/b><\/p>\n

Simon: I felt like I could do it on my own and was ready to take the jump. It was 2010, I had been in the business for six-and-a-half years, and I figured that Bill Gates started his company when the economy was in a recession, so there must be something about starting at the bottom.\u00a0 I also thought that if I was going to do it, now was the time, when I\u2019m not married, no kids\u2014I didn\u2019t have a family that I was worried about.<\/p>\n

CPE: What\u2019s the scope of your business thus far?<\/b><\/p>\n

Simon: We own about a half a million square feet in seven to eight states. The majority of our projects this year have been single-tenant work. We\u2019re a preferred developer for Dollar General in California, and we\u2019ve developed Verizon Wireless stores and EZ Corp pawnshops. We bought a vacant Wal-Mart in Arkansas and we\u2019ll subdivide it. We already have it pretty well leased, and the tenants will open later this year.<\/p>\n

CPE: What are your plans to grow the company?<\/b><\/p>\n

Simon: I\u2019d like to grow my portfolio substantially. We\u2019ll definitely continue to develop. We\u2019re trying to double our single-tenant developments to between 24 and 36 single-tenant deals next year while also buying redevelopment opportunities. Everything we buy is value add. At the same time, the market conditions can change overnight. I think it\u2019s very important, despite your goals, to have flexibility and immediately be able to adjust if the market is moving in a different direction.<\/p>\n

CPE: And you\u2019re also involved in the technology industry?<\/b><\/p>\n

Simon: Yes. I bought a substantial part of One Stop Voice, a Voice over Internet Protocol company, about four years ago, around the time when I went out on my own in real estate. When we bought it, the company was failing, literally on its last legs. We\u2019ve taken it and turned it into a $1 million-plus revenue company in three years. So that\u2019s a pretty cool success story.<\/p>\n

CPE: What advice do you have for other young entrepreneurs?<\/b><\/p>\n

Simon: You have to have passion. I don\u2019t know anybody who is really good at something and doesn\u2019t have complete passion for what they are doing. You\u2019ve got to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and be able to say, \u201cIf I fail and have to move back in with my parents, I\u2019m OK with that.\u201d And I\u2019m willing to work 90 hours a week. It\u2019s all risk and reward. If you\u2019re willing to take that risk and have passion for what you are doing, then I think you should do it.<\/p>\n

CPE: Do<\/i> you work 90 hours a week?<\/b><\/p>\n

Simon: Yes. My girlfriend doesn\u2019t always like it, but I don\u2019t call it work. Today, I\u2019m in Detroit, and I get to go out to dinner with clients. I guess that\u2019s putting hours on the clock, but this is what I love to do. These are my friends and my family. I don\u2019t consider it work.<\/p>\n

CPE: How do you give back?<\/b><\/p>\n

Simon: I\u2019m active in the Phoenix 20\/30 Club. We just held our annual Suitcase Party, which is our annual charity fundraiser. It brought in over $200,000 for Phoenix Children\u2019s Hospital. It\u2019s held in a jet hangar, and we pull the name of a winner at the party who gets on a private jet and takes off for a weekend in Vegas, all expenses paid.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also on the Arizona board for Entrepreneurs\u2019 Organization. My new role is as the Accelerator president, which is a feeder organization. If you\u2019re the owner of a company that has more than $1 million in revenue, your EO group acts as a board of advisors. As the Accelerator president, I mentor business owners that aren\u2019t at the $1 million level and help get them above it. I thought it would be a great opportunity, since I\u2019ve been so fortunate to get my business from zero to over $1 million that I wanted to help other business owners do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joshua Simon launched Phoenix-based SimonCRE at age 24. Now he’s developing and redeveloping shopping centers and single-tenant build to suits in places as diverse as Detroit and Arkansas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":413,"featured_media":1004101589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22251,21744,21749],"tags":[39405,39459],"class_list":["post-1004101586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","category-people","category-retail","tag-detroit","tag-phoenix"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nExecutive Spotlight: Joshua Simon, SimonCRE - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/executive-spotlight-joshua-simon-simoncre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Executive Spotlight: Joshua Simon, SimonCRE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joshua Simon launched Phoenix-based SimonCRE at age 24. 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