The inaugural Greater Perimeter Chamber Annual Meeting celebrated the launch of a new era in business leadership across Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, and the broader Perimeter region. This pivotal event unveiled their bold vision for the future and clarified what the Chamber stands FOR: business growth, innovation, and collaboration.
Andre Koleszar, Managing Director of Regency Centers, is responsible for a portfolio of 142 properties, totaling more than 17 million square feet, in the Southeast US. Andre also assists with the region’s development, acquisition, and disposition efforts.
Andre joined Regency in 2005 as a Leasing Agent in Palm Beach, Fla., leasing centers from Martin County to Dade County. In 2006, he transferred to Raleigh, NC, handling centers in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee as a Senior Leasing Agent.
He assumed the role of Vice President in Atlanta in 2008. In 2010, Andre earned the Joan and Martin E. Stein, Sr. Award, Regency’s highest honor, recognizing employees’ business acumen and ethical standards.
Before joining Regency, he leased a retail portfolio and managed transactional real estate nationally for a private real estate holding firm in New York.
Andre earned his Bachelor of Science from Tulane University. He is also a member of ICSC, ULI, and a Perimeter Chamber Board Member for Sandy Springs. 
Outside work, he is an active member of St. Jude the Apostle Church and Co-Chair of Holy Innocents Episcopal School Parent Association Faculty Appreciation.
He enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, exercising, rowing, boating, fishing, and gardening.
Connect with Andre on LinkedIn.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Greater Perimeter. It’s time for Greater Perimeter Chamber Spotlight. Now, here’s your host.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Broadcasting live from the Greater Perimeter Chamber inaugural annual meeting. So excited to be talking to my next guest, Andre Koleszar. Welcome.
Andre Koleszar: How are you doing?
Lee Kantor: Well, Andre, what firm are you with?
Andre Koleszar: I’m with Regency Centers. We’re a real estate investment trust. Uh, I live in Sandy Springs, but I’ve got offices all over the southeast.
Lee Kantor: So we’re asking everybody, why are you for the Greater Perimeter Chamber?
Andre Koleszar: Well, it’s pretty simple. Obviously, as a resident of Sandy Springs, I want everything for the betterment of both perimeter and Sandy Springs. But my company owns primarily grocery anchored shopping centers. And you can imagine a Publix, a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe’s, uh, even an Aldi in Sandy Springs and a number of tenants in every one of those shopping centers. So on average you got 25 to 30 tenants per shopping center. Times seven shopping centers between Dunwoody and Sandy Springs. That is a lot of merchants, a lot of retailers, a lot of restaurants, and a lot of people that could benefit from the greater perimeter chamber and all of the activities and positives that come along with it. So my job is really just to connect my tenants and my community with the greater perimeter chamber.
Lee Kantor: So that’s kind of built into your go to market strategy is to encourage your tenants to get involved in the chamber, because your firm feels it’s important for to be successful. They have to kind of immerse themselves in the community in that manner. 100%.
Andre Koleszar: You know, I mean, our tenants survive on their sales and that’s how they thrive is building sales. And what better way to do it than through the greater perimeter chamber and connecting all of those people together? So absolutely, the math is pretty easy.
Lee Kantor: So how do you recommend your tenants to kind of leverage the chamber for, you know, biggest bang for their buck?
Andre Koleszar: I continue to encourage all of our new tenants. So when we do sign a new lease with a Dave’s Hot Chicken or a new boutique. You know, one of the things, one of the links that we, our property management, sends them is the link to the greater perimeter chamber and and basically encourages them. We don’t we can’t force them obviously, but. Right. Good. Good encouragement to to join the chamber and and everything that comes along with it. So that’s our new tenants and then our existing base. We constantly have sort of a rolling, I guess we’ll call it an Excel spreadsheet of all of those tenants and, and go through them one by one over the course of a year. And again, encourage those guys to join because of all the benefits.
Lee Kantor: So what do you need more in your business and how can we help you?
Andre Koleszar: I think honestly, I need to do a better job proving out the value of the greater perimeter chamber to all of those tenants. So any of those tools and obviously Adam’s been fantastic for us, but that’s sort of my mission statement for the year. Again, with the expanded chamber to get in front of specifically my, my, my Dunwoody tenants, I can see Michael Starling walking by our with Dunwoody, one of the good guys, and really just setting forth as much media material, marketing material and really just doing. I have to do a better job marketing to my tenants.
Lee Kantor: So how many tenants do you have in and around the area again?
Andre Koleszar: Uh, several hundred.
Lee Kantor: So there’s hundreds? Yes. And yeah. So that’s a great opportunity. Yes. For both you and your tenant.
Andre Koleszar: And we’ve done a really good job over time. I mean, we we own Dunwoody Village. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with that or the village is and David Davis, the restaurant tour that’s done a fantastic job in there. And those are the kind of connection points that we want to have with the community. And again, I really think the chamber, um, provides that benefit. And I need to double down on on those relationships.
Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, uh, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect with you?
Andre Koleszar: The easiest way is just to go to Regency centers.com. You can sort by all of our Atlanta properties. You can sort by, you know, obviously through Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, you can go to a big map and drill drill down and see all the all the tenants and grocery anchored shopping centers that we own in the area, including Buckhead and all around Georgia as well.
Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, Andre, thank you so much for sharing your story today.
Andre Koleszar: Hey man, really appreciate it. Thank. You.
