2016 Women in Real Estate: Andrea Olshan

Name: Andrea Olshan

Title: Chief Executive Officer

Company Name: Olshan Properties

Year Founded: 1959 

URL: www.olshanproperties.com

Years in real estate:

11 behind a desk but a lifetime of experience

How did you get your start in real estate?

As the daughter of real estate legend, Mort Olshan, real estate is in Andrea Olshan’s blood and she was groomed from her earliest years to join the business her father established 57 years ago. Formerly known as Mall Properties, Inc., today’s Olshan Properties is a privately owned real estate firm specializing in the development, acquisition and management of a diverse portfolio comprising retail, hotel, residential and office properties. After graduating from Harvard College and then from Columbia Graduate School of Business Andrea took a chair at her father’s conference table, and gaining his confidence in just a short time, became COO with responsibility for the company’s day-to-day operations including leasing, property management, asset management, development and construction. Plotting the strategic direction of Olshan Properties as CEO since 2012, Andrea oversees all investment activity and capital partnerships and sits on the company’s Investment Committee and Board of Directors.

What real estate associations or organizations are you a member of?

Andrea Olshan is actively involved in numerous civic and social service organizations. She serves on the Steering Committee of the Council of Conservators at the New York Public Library, as class co-chair for the Harvard College Fund, as President of the Graduate Board of the Hasty Pudding Club - Institute of 1770, and as a Trustee of the Horace Mann School, serving on its Executive Committee. Andrea serves as co-chair of the Emerging Leadership Committee and board member of 92Y. She is also a member of the UJA-Federation’s Real Estate and Allied Trades Executive Committee.

What recent project or transaction are you most proud of?

Andrea’s leadership has been marked by expanding Olshan Properties’ portfolio with carefully selected investments including the Shoppes at Webb Gin, a town center in Atlanta with 333,795 square feet of gross leasable retail area, and The Hilton Orrington, the only full-service AAA-Four Diamond hotel located in the Chicago submarket of Evanston, Illinois. Her management accomplishments include consistent double digit revenue and net asset value growth. Under Andrea’s guidance the company has developed or acquired over 5 million square feet of income-producing real estate including retail, residential, hotel and office assets. Andrea has also headed up successful asset dispositions including Florline Commons Shopping Center, a 202,199-square foot shopping center in Baton Rouge, and Olshan’s interest in 575 Lexington, a 35-story office building in New York City that sold last year for $510 million.

What recent honor, achievement or recognition has meant the most to you and why?

In 2014, I launched Olshan Outreach, a company-wide, community-focused program of service-based giving uniting the company’s employees under a worthy cause of their choice. In its inaugural year, Olshan team members contributed directly to the distribution of 12,000 lbs. of food through their initiatives with local food banks, food drives, and community events to support the ‘Fight Against Hunger.’ In 2015, Olshan team members worked to raise funds and awareness about heart health and for 2016 they have committed to the ‘Fight Against Cancer.’

What was a significant milestone or achievement for your company?

In 2014, in order to better communicate the diversity of the company’s portfolio and its capabilities, we re-rebranded Mall Properties, Inc., to its present name Olshan Properties. Olshan’s 1,000+ dedicated staff members nationwide were unified with a common identity and purpose and under the new organizational structure worked with greater efficiencies across the formerly separate divisions to advance Olshan’s mission. Thanks to the restructuring, we now enjoy greater hands-on ownership and self-manage nearly all of our investments and partnerships through retail, hotel, residential and office divisions.