Don Briggs
Title: President, Boston Region, Federal Realty Investment Trust
Age: 46
Experience: 25 years
Don Briggs is president of the Boston region for Bethesda, Md.-based Federal Realty Investment Trust, which is building the $1.5-billion Assembly Row mixed-use development in Somerville. Briggs studied architecture at the University of Florida and worked at Cousins Properties and Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. before joining Federal Realty in 2000. Last month, Briggs was named district council chair of the Urban Land Institute Boston.
Q: You studied architecture in college. Did that lead to real estate development as a career?
A: To be honest with you, I took a trip between my junior year and senior year in high school. I was an Army brat. My cousin and I went over and traveled through Europe with three of his friends for six weeks, and that kind of seeded my passion for cities. That inspired me to study architecture. I did practice architecture as an intern over the summers and realized that was not how I wanted to spend my time. The real strategic decisions for city building were made by developers. I read a couple of really interesting books about urban design and mixed use and I studied up on public-private partnerships so I learned organically on my own the skill-sets and it helped me down the path of trying to build little mini-cities.
Q: Federal Realty has been an investor in the Assembly Square redevelopment since 2005. With the transformation of retail in the age of Amazon, how did the strategy shift to an outlet-style center for the retail space?
A: After the recession hit, the retailers really transformed. They had overbuilt the lifestyle product, and so their business model changed. Where they were making money really was in their outlets. And you point to the Internet. They really trade on their name brand. You have vertically-branded retailers. You have the Internet, an outlet, a full-priced store. Retail is really contracting their footprint, but they are making a lot of money in their outlet stores. But they had not really ventured this close to the city. The most significant predecessor was The Outlet Collection at Jersey Gardens (in Elizabeth, N.J). We looked at that and said, ‘Here’s a real strategy here.’ This is really a huge test case. So far the experiment seems to be working. The sales here are off the charts.
Q: What are ULI Boston’s top priorities for the next year?
A: It’s really about building a better urban environment. It’s a huge resource that can be brought to bear at a great time in Boston’s history. I am very bullish on the prospects of Boston overall, when you think about its fundamental strengths: medical, research, technology, the young knowledge workforce that increasingly wants to stay in and around Boston. When you think about 495 and 128 in, that is our metropolitan area. Our history here has been to think about the city of Boston as ending at the Charles River. There’s been a shift in the public dialogue to think about this more as a region and how we become more competitive. Then we can think about workforce housing and transportation. There’s a magic moment right now in the city of Boston where that dialogue is taking place and ULI can play a role in facilitate that. Workforce housing is a regional issue. Our transportation system connects to Worcester, to the Gateway Cities and all parts in-between. We’re not going to change Home Rule, but can we get citizens and officials to think about housing affordability for families who aren’t in affordable housing but are making $100,000 or $120,000 a year.
Q: What’s the next commercial development hotspot in Greater Boston?
A: I don’t think you can pinpoint one spot. We’re going through this quantum leap. Kendall Square is the center of the orbit, but now you have opportunities like the Seaport, NorthPoint, Assembly Row, Alewife and Brighton. Now you have inner-suburbs where these opportunities exist. Boston is going to go through this evolution. And it’s because the knowledge worker lives in Charlestown and Cambridge and South Boston. These companies want to be close to their employees. The employee wants to have an amenity-rich environment when you get there. Transit’s going to be important. You look at the fingers of the transit lines and you can just start picking those dots.
Q: What’s the last book you read?
A: I read “Triumph of the City” by Edward Glaeser for work, and then I read “The Metropolitan Revolution,” by Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley.
Top 5 Summer To-Dos With The Family In And Around Boston:
- Minuteman Bike Trail (and dinner at Redbones)
- George’s Island picnic and fort tour
- Rock "climbing" at Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester
- Fourth of July in Rockport (let that bonfire burn, baby!)
- High-speed ferry to P-Town (awesome day trip)
