Suburban Square Boss Named to Main Line Chamber Board

The Main Line Chamber of Commerce has elected Mark Bachus, general manager of the shopping center in Ardmore, to its board of directors.

Bachus, also a member of the , has been GM at Suburban Square since November 2009. A Texas native, Bachus has been in the shopping center industry for about 20 years, moving to the Philadelphia area to work at the King of Prussia mega-mall complex before taking his current job.

Chamber board members generally serve two three-year terms, which may be extended.

“It gives us the opportunity to network with different businesses, to sort of give back to our community, and it also allows us to market ourselves to our customer base,” said Bachus on Monday, about his election. “And certainly the Main Line Chamber has some professionals that we like to have some face time with as much as we can.”

As a shopping center, Bachus said that’s especially important for Suburban Square, which is not a regional destination. Instead, “We have been part of the Main Line community for years and years and years,” he said. “It’s a little different for us.”

That’s not the only thing different about the outdoor mall. In the midst of a terrible economy, with dozens of national retailers filing for bankruptcy and many drastically others cutting back on store locations throughout the country, Suburban Square boasts a robust 98 percent occupancy rate, with only one retail store vacant and just one space in the center’s Farmer’s Market.

In that regard, its relatively small size is an asset for parent company Kimco Realty Corp., a publicly traded real estate investment trust (NYSE: KIM) that bills itself as the owner of “North America’s largest portfolio of neighborhood and community shopping centers.”

Suburban Square has 370,000 square feet of leasable space, about a third the size of an average shopping center or mall. The King of Prussia Mall, by contrast, consists of 2.8 million square feet; the Plymouth Meeting Mall is about 891,000 square feet.

Opened in 1928, Suburban Square is generally acknowledged as one of the first shopping centers in the United States, and very likely the first to include a department store—Strawbridge & Clothier (now a ) opened its doors there in the spring of 1930.

In these days of the Internet and the constant hum of social media, being part of the Chamber—and helping to call the shots as part of its board—is still an invaluable means of grassroots, face-to-face interaction with business partners, potential partners and customers, Bachus said.

A simple example is the Suburban Square Visa gift card, “corporate accounts that businesses can uses as incentives for their customers or employees,” Bachus said. The more communication with business leaders, the more widespread the gift cards become, resulting in more sales for Suburban Square merchants.

Bachus is also a part of the Main Line Chamber’s new Retail Roundtable, which convened for the first time in April. Another, set for the end of June, will focus on consumer research.

Bachus is not the only Ardmore executive on the Main Line Chamber’s board. John Durso, vice president and market manager at , is chairman of the board for the Ardmore Initiative.