Julie Fox – Vice President Retail Leasing, MCB Real Estate

JULIE FOX
Why can't we have a network or a support group for women to be able to call each other on the phone? If we're looking for information or help each other, why can't we do that? And then the thought that came to me was, well, why me? Why doesn't this already exist? But then a larger voice said, why not you?

GREG SIMPSON
On today's episode of the Built2Suit podcast, Nathan Griffis recently sat down with Julie Fox, the vice president of retail leasing at MCB Real Estate to talk leadership, networking, and shaping the future, retail real estate. Julie shares her journey from broker to founder of the pipeline, a national network empowering women in the industry. Plus, we dive into trends, mentorship, and why relationships, not just transactions drive success. How do you turn a vision into a movement? Let's let Julie tell us how.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
What's the first app you open in the morning?

JULIE FOX
What's the first app I open in the morning? That's a really, really, really good question. Probably the weather app.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
The weather app?

JULIE FOX
Okay. I like to check to see what my day's going to look like.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So I think I heard you recently transitioned out of Philly, right? So where are you living now?

JULIE FOX
I live in Delaware now.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay. So you've got to be more interested in the weather in Delaware than you had to worry about it in Philly?

JULIE FOX
No. I mean, I like to plan accordingly.

JULIE FOX
I like to know if it's going to rain or if it's going to be sunny, if I can play tennis that day.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay. So tennis. All right. So how often do you play tennis?

JULIE FOX
Not as often as I'd like, but I used to play competitive high school tennis.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Really?

JULIE FOX
So it's a lot of fun. But now I like to play for recreation.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay. Well, it's great exercise. I played in I think middle school. I didn't go anywhere with it. I thought there was a better plan for my life, but that's ...

JULIE FOX
Do you play pickleball?

NATHAN GRIFFIS
I don't, but I hear I really should. So our Christmas party this year, we're going to have it at a pickleball deal. So we're looking forward to trash talking because that's really my sport. My sport is trash talking, not any particular sport. I'm going to ask you a fun one. What's the weirdest or most memorable ICSC conversation you ever had? I feel like maybe you've ran into some people and you've had some weird ones.

JULIE FOX
I have. I will tell you one of the very first ICSC Las Vegas show that I went to when I was a young broker in the business. I was walking around with one of our partners of our brokerage firm, and it was one of my first Vegas show. And I remember walking with him and there was a gentleman older who came up to him, was talking to him, looks over at me and says, "Oh, it's nice you have arm candy today." And it was at that moment that I was like, “Ok.”

NATHAN GRIFFIS
That's where we're at.

JULIE FOX
That's where we’re at.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Can we just be better? Like I had hopes, but we didn't get there.

JULIE FOX
But it was very memorable because it made me realize that in order to navigate this industry, I really had to be intentional and really focused on obviously being good at what I do, but also building my network.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah. No better way to shut up people than to actually put up and do a great job.

JULIE FOX
Right. Right.

JULIE FOX
That was a weird one, right?

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah. For all a mankind, I apologize. There's some jerks in our mix. Yeah, that's unfortunate. But obviously we're seeing some change in it. We talk about in our industry. So in our firm, we're 43, I think 43, 44% female. But when our CEO, he talks about when he went to college out of a class of 75, there was three or four women in his class. And so clearly a lot more women in our industry, and I see that in the commercial real estate industry. And I think you attended a panel yesterday that we had here at the show, which was a wonderful panel. It's highlighted how women can influence it from the inside out, so being in it. And I felt like that was a great conversation by some super and super impactful women.

JULIE FOX
Completely agree.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So what's a name or a book or a podcast that you've listened to that maybe had the most impact on you in that aspect of your growth in the industry?

JULIE FOX
I would say that one of the podcasts that I've really enjoyed listening to has been my friend Nancy Mozzachio's podcast. She, since COVID has really interviewed a lot of women that are in C level suite positions as well as just women that own their own brokerage firms or shaping the industry from the inside out. So I enjoy really understanding the person's journey beyond just their role and how they got there, hearing what motivated them, what encourages them, what inspires them, why they're doing what they're doing, the why behind what we're doing. So I love listening to those candid conversations because these are all very accomplished women that have made it and just-

NATHAN GRIFFIS
They probably had somebody call them eye candy at some point.

JULIE FOX
Exactly. Exactly. So yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
And I can't imagine, but in some ways I view people sometimes responding well to having chips on their shoulder. And in my mind, when you said that, I'm going, "That's probably what pissed you off and said, I'm going to conquer this. I'm going to make this. "

JULIE FOX
Absolutely. I'm going to make a name for myself.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yes.

JULIE FOX
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yes.

JULIE FOX
Absolutely.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
No, I think, so turn some bad situations for good.

JULIE FOX
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So what's your role in impacting the ICSC or commercial real estate industry to help us be better, to help us be better?

JULIE FOX
Yeah, no, absolutely. About 10 years in the business, like nine years ago, I was at a Philly ICSC conference. I was leading a round table discussion with women in the room on issues that affected women, work-life balance, women leadership, you name it. After that, let's just call it round table discussion. All the women in the room were like, "This is so great. It's too bad we only see each other once a year at the conference. We don't get to chat or help each other." And something really just sparked with inside of me that was like, "Yeah, it is a shame that we only see each other once a year or whenever we go to a conference. Why can't we have a network or a support group for women to be able to call each other on the phone? If we're looking for information or help each other, why can't we do that?

JULIE FOX
" And then the thought that came to me was, "Well, why me? Why doesn't this already exist?" But then a larger voice said, "Why not you?

JULIE FOX
And so I shared that vision with Courtney Rickle, who was my coworker at the time on the landlord side. And we said, "We're going to set out. Our vision is to start a networking support group for women in retail real estate." And it's grown. It's been nine years now. It's grown to 375 women nationally.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Wow.

JULIE FOX
We started in Philly, South Jersey, planning just local events that women would want to do with their girlfriends in addition to real estate topics, but we did spa events, winery events, you name it, ax throwing. And we have nine regions now where there's local events happening throughout the year where women can connect. And what I've said is that the group is different from, I would say other industry groups in that it's focused on building relationship first and not just transaction. But Beth Azure helped us to start our investment club within the pipeline. We're up to 30 women now in that group learning about investing and looking at deals together. There's a retailer subgroup within the pipeline, we're up to almost 65 retailers and they have their space. They get on a virtual monthly call and Brooke Cabrera from Jersey Mike's helps me to facilitate it and the retailers have their separate space.

JULIE FOX
And then I have a landlord leasing subgroup within the pipeline too, made up of landlord deal makers.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
All right. So that sounds like an awful lot and clearly lots to be proud of.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Lots to be proud of. Give me what out of all of that, when you look back on your career, you got a long career ahead of you, but when you look back, what aspect of that? What do you want them to say about your involvement in that? What do you want the industry to say about Julie?

JULIE FOX
I want the industry to be able to say that I made an impact in really helping to shape more women coming into the industry and not just coming into it, but really growing in it and hopefully even hitting leadership positions. I want to empower other women to be able to, if they have a question or need help or support, career navigation, to be able to know that they have a support and a network to help each other. I wish that existed for me when I started 20 plus years ago. It would have helped. I mean, there were other mentors along the way, but just because it didn't exist for me doesn't mean that it's not something that we can't have for the next generation. And that's also why we called it the pipeline was to build a pipeline of women for the next generation. So we're even getting women coming out of college who want to be in the business to be part of the group, to network and get to know the other women.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
That's so huge.

JULIE FOX
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
I'll just tell you, us guys, we're not that organized. So it's going to be great and it's going to be impactful. I mean, and no, it's really, really good. The one thing I took away from the panel yesterday, and I can't remember who said it, but was the looking forward to the future when having a female panel on this topic would be an anomaly. Yeah. It wouldn't be what it currently is. And I think that's a great big picture vision for the industry and it's absolutely true. The diversity absolutely matters for the industry, different points of view for sure.

JULIE FOX
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay. I'm going to go step away from that.

JULIE FOX
Okay.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
What's the one trend in retail or mixed use development that you think is either overhyped or underhyped in 2025?

JULIE FOX
Either overhyped or under hyped.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah. I'm going to give you the overhype for me. We have a lot of carwash stuff happening. I think that season may have passed, so it may still be a little over hyped, but what's yours?

JULIE FOX
I mean, I think there's a lot of, not to say I don't love pickleball, but I think there's a lot of pickleball concepts that are coming into the space. I think there's room. I'm just wondering at what point is there too much?

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Too much pickleball.

JULIE FOX
And how many of the firms make it versus some that don't? I think they're going to need to differentiate themselves beyond just offering a pickleball court, like a whole experience.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah. No, I mean, it's a big deal.

JULIE FOX
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah. And

JULIE FOX
Even Paddle. Pedel.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yes,

JULIE FOX
Padel. It's

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Coming

JULIE FOX
into the market.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yes. And there's so many. I know the venue that we're going to for our Christmas part, it's a big deal.

JULIE FOX
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah. So I think you're right. And it's interesting because there's ... What I wonder on that space is at what point is there a public private sort of collaboration that happens? Because you have, on some cases, you have the private people that are coming in and developing these. Some places you have the jurisdictions that are standing this up and it's like, huh, okay, who's going to win out here?

JULIE FOX
Yeah. I mean, I think it's here to stay. I don't think everyone will be successful. So it's just a matter of differentiating yourself. Just like when we think about all the different crazes, Froyo. When Froyo came in, there was 20 Frolio concepts who's still around.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So I'm fortunate to have some connections to some of the really seasoned people and they're like, "We remember the Burger Wars." So yes, you're absolutely right. There's hotness and then some things just fall off a cliff.

JULIE FOX
And even now, the chicken,

JULIE FOX
Like, Raising Cane's, Dave's Hot Chicken, Hangry Joe's, right? Yes.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yes. Yeah. How many chicken fingers options do we really need? A lot. Chicken guy would say, "We need one more." We need more. We need more. Okay. We spent a lot of time on mission and vision for the future. You mentioned a podcast. What's one book that you would say for a young leader that influenced your leadership, specifically your leadership?

JULIE FOX
I'm a big fan of John Maxwell.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay. Can't go wrong with a godfather.

JULIE FOX
So I've read several of his books. I can't think of one particular one, but,

NATHAN GRIFFIS
No, because he's got 94.

JULIE FOX
Exactly. So I'm a firm believer of even servant leadership, the idea of you have to lead by example and being about what you talk about. And I think he's one about that.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So I'm not asking, I'm not telling you, so you'll leave the show tomorrow, but John Maxwell's in town.

JULIE FOX
No.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
He's having lived a lead across the street. We've got seven people from our team that are going-

JULIE FOX
98 that go?

NATHAN GRIFFIS
That are going. So we give out tickets and give them the day off, obviously, and go to his event. He's had two here this year.

JULIE FOX
Oh, wow.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So yeah, you can't go wrong with ... But he would tell you last time I saw him when he was here in Orlando six months ago, he said, "There's some books I'm not proud of. " And he's humble enough to tell you which are the bad ones, but he also said he has 14 more that he has in process.

JULIE FOX
That's amazing.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So talk about purpose, talk about driven, talk about hungry. I'll leave you with this because now you got me on one of my favorite subjects, which is leadership. He came out on stage and he was so passionate. He had a hard time even controlling his emotions. And he said his classic line, "I'm John, I'm your friend." But he said, "I want so bad to be good for you today."

JULIE FOX
Such a- Think about how many times he's spoken, world known, world renowned and just the humility. That's what it's about.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
It was so deep and it was so awesome. No, you can't really go wrong. I think probably his bad books are still probably okay.

JULIE FOX
It's still up there.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Well, Julie, I really appreciate it. I'm glad that- Thank you for having me. I'm glad that Leslie could make this connection. Thanks for joining us for dinner, but also thanks for sitting down with us for a few minutes, letting us learn a little bit more about you. Maybe someday we'll have some pickleball opportunity.

JULIE FOX
We should, as tennis people, we should.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Work it together. I feel that maybe we can support the industry, right? Make sure a few more of them make it.

JULIE FOX
That's right.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
But Julie, thank you very much for sitting down.

JULIE FOX
Thank you.