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Real
estate mogul out ‘to make a difference’
Date: 06-30-04 If it’s true that everything old will be new again, then real estate redeveloper Michael A. Pollack will continue his stunning success. Since moving to Arizona in 1991, Pollack has been involved in developing and redeveloping more than 9 million square feet of commercial buildings. Drive down any major Chandler street and you’ll see his name. This month, Michael A. Pollack Real Estate Investments was named Business of the Year by the Chandler Chamber of Commerce. But to cast Pollack as the “King of Strip Malls” is to touch only one aspect of his personality. His main office is an opulent building renovated from a furniture store once voted the ugliest building in Mesa by homeowners. It is home to an eclectic art collection, ceiling frescoes of his grandparents and walls of memorabilia from a 31-year career that includes television, radio, singing and auctioneering. There are photos of Pollack with Tanya Tucker (just friends) and Tattoo from Fantasy Island. A photo from eight years ago depicts Pollack astride his horse, taking second place in the Tennessee Walker Championships. The main event in the 31,000-square-foot building is Pollack’s Advertising Museum, a collection of 4,000 pieces dating from the 1600’s to the 1990's. But there’s more. A game room is offered for kids’ organizations during some of the company’s charity events. A video arcade is available for employees, who also have a lunch room decorated as a 1950's diner, complete with a jukebox that plays a 45 rpm single Pollack recorded in the 1980's as part of an advertising campaign for a Houston apartment complex. There’s even a fitness center, which Pollack readily admits is the least-used room in the building. Tucked in beside a repair bench for his advertising collection is a drum set that Pollack plays occasionally. Then there’s his slot machine collection that includes an original one-armed bandit carved from wood with the slot workings tucked into the bandit’s torso. Ensconced behind locked French doors is Pollack’s private retreat room, furnished from Louis XVI and Louis XVII, where he can relax and sip a glass of wine while waiting for another building to renovate. Many Properties in Chandler bear your name. Tell me about your redevelopment work. "I challenge myself each and every time to try and one-up the last one I did. I collect real estate. What some people would call work I call my hobby. This isn’t work, this is the greatest fun." "That good old-fashioned sense of pride has been lost along the way. People say, 'You put your name on everything.' I’m proud of them." When you look at a boarded-up strip mall, what do you see? "I can automatically feel and see and envision exactly what it’s going to look like when I get done with it." Do you prefer redeveloping to building from scratch? "Redevelopment can be more rewarding at times. It’s so dramatic, and I’ve never, ever had a complaint on any of the redevelopment projects. Yet, you always hear of the controversies when something’s going to be built from the ground up." "Redevelopment is contagious. It starts on the hard corners and spreads to the neighborhoods."
"We’re not in the real estate business just to try to make money. We’re in the real estate business to truly make a difference. I would hope that people see that and it’s evident in the work we do in our redevelopment." "If I was in the business to just make money, a
lot of the redevelopment I’ve done I probably wouldn’t
have done. North Park Plaza’s a prime example of that. It
was "I wanted to set a standard, at the highest standard, and North Park has done that." So you would consider it your best accomplishment? "You know, they’re kind of like children. You love them all. But it definitely is one of the most dramatic because it was built in the ‘50s, and it showed the ravages of time. Probably one of the most expensive that I’ve done." There’s a “Watching You” web site dedicated to you and calling you “briefly the most famous person in Houston.” Have you seen this web site? "I have. Basically, between 1980 and 1984, I was about 25 years old. I was hired to do a huge promotion on a huge, 1,838 unit apartment complex - Colonial House. I was indeed managing that for somebody else." "My job was to promote it. I did all the commercials for it. It looked like a used car dealer to be honest. And that was my job at that time." Is that part of why you decided to quit doing working for other people? "Exactly. I was asked by the people I was working for to wear the most hip and, how would you call it, swinger type things. We were catering to a singles lifestyle. I was the Pied Piper at that time of the singles generation back in the ‘83, ‘84 time frame, and now here we are 20 years later and obviously not even close to that." "It was my job. It wasn’t what I necessarily wanted to be, it was the image the people I was working for wanted me to portray." There weren’t web sites then. This was created in 2000. In a way it’s a compliment. "It’s kind of tongue in cheek. We had done the largest television and radio advertising campaign, and billboards, that the city had seen. I was basically at that time a household word." So,it was your personality out there selling it. "That’s exactly what happened." Does the site bother you? "First of all, there’s nothing I can do about it, it’s on the Internet. Second of all, it doesn’t really bother me because anyone who knows me today knows that that was a completely different person. I don’t think any of us could look back when we were 24, 25 and try to be the same person when we’re 50. So,no it doesn’t bother me in the least. That was my job.I was paid to be that person and I was good at being that person at the time. Could I do i today? The answer’s not only no, but absolutely no." Tell us about your museum. "Everything is 3-dimensional that’s in the museum. And it’s advertising." "Today, they would be so antiquated. These pieces in their time. They all stood for something. They all had slogans and they meant something. Today, they would fall flat on their face because they just wouldn’t work." A couple years ago, you encouraged your employees to study Spanish. How is that going? "Well, that’s a good subject. It didn’t do great for us to be honest. Some of us were able to get a basic, very rough understanding of Spanish. Some dropped out right away in the classes, so it didn’t do as well as I would’ve liked. I think part of it was, too, we just didn’t have enough hours in the day. I personally stayed in the majority of all the classes until the end and then even I ran out of time." Anything else you want to touch on, work or community involvement? "I think one of the most exciting projects we worked on last year was the Michael A. Pollak Feed the Need program. We did it with St. Mary’s Food Bank. We used the majority of all our shopping center locations as drop-off points for people to bring food. It was an extremely successful program. Many tons of food were raised for the people that truly need it. This year, we’re hoping to double the numbers we had last year. I was really thrilled with that." Is there anything that you fear? "You know, I think my biggest fear would probably be that someday I know I won’t be able to do what I’m doing today, and I know I would miss it so much. Not just for me, but for so many of those charitable
organizations that we work with. I can’t tell you how many
lately I’ve either been the master of ceremonies for at their
events or I’ve been their guest auctioneer. And I think I
fear that day when I can’t do that anymore, and I know that
day will come because it comes for all of us."
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Michael
A. Pollack
 
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Mesa, AZ 85210 
(480) 888-0888