Joe Coradino

The company that Joseph F. Coradino leads took a lot of heat over the Gallery. Critics lashed out at the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which includes the Center City mall among the dozens it runs nationwide, for shutting stores and cutting merchants off from their livelihoods.

Even the promise of a glittering new shopping mall in a tired section of Market Street East didn't seem to turn down the temperature.

But the critics didn't understand the whole story, says Coradino, 63, chief executive of PREIT.

The Gallery had fallen into such disrepair that it wasn't even attractive to the retailers in the building.

"It's a little bit of a chicken or an egg thing, in that bigger tenants don't want to stay if you're not going to redo it," he said. "Once you hit a tipping point, you can't put your toe in the water, you can't go in up to your knees. You're either going to jump in or stay out."

So you had to close the mall in order to save it?

It had to be shut down. We're not going to operate a flea market, where people can get hurt, where escalators shut down, where the property doesn't meet code.

I wondered if it were a tactic. You are asking the city to let you keep $127.5 million in future taxes over the next 20 years and there's a hearing on it later this month. Maybe a gaping hole on Market Street would pressure City Council to pass the tax break.

It puts more pressure on us. But, it's not about pressure. It's time for the Gallery. You couldn't just continue to have it be what it was. It was in a terrible state of disrepair. This isn't about customers or retailers. This is about the condition of the physical plant. The escalators were constantly breaking down. Last year we spent $400,000 fixing an elevator that shouldn't have been fixed. It should have been torn out. There's over $60 million in deferred maintenance at the Gallery.

OK, but whose fault is that?

It was a joint obligation of the property owner and the City of Philadelphia.

So you and the city are equally to blame?

To put it quite simply, we both have an obligation.

As an operator of malls and shopping centers, you deal with retailers. What would make Philadelphia into a first-class shopping town?

First you'd want a fashion department store - Bloomingdale's, Saks, a Neiman, Nordstrom. In world-class cities, you would find NikeTown, American Girl, Crate & Barrel. I think what we're doing at the Gallery will help us get there.

Do you have a mantra?

I don't know who said this, but great leaders aren't people who have power, but who empower others.

What's this "Get Out of Jail Free" card in your office?

It allows it to be OK for people to make mistakes.

So you're a PREIT leasing agent who just messed up a deal with an big tenant. Can you give your "Get Out Of Jail" card to Joe Coradino?

Yes. And, by the way, together we'll fix it. If you find an organization where people are afraid to make a mistake or are intimidated by their leader, you've got a company that's going to go nowhere. Why? People are going to be afraid of doing anything.

You used to be a bartender. Favorite drink?

I gave up drinking 25 years ago because I'm committed to health, fitness, clarity. Clarity is very important to me. When you drink, you're not clear. When you're hung over, you're not clear.

Don't drinking and deals go together?

Oh, it's challenging to be different, but it's also kind of a differentiator.

People remember you.

Look, I grew up in a rowhouse in South Philadelphia. Neither of my parents finished high school. The road I took was, for my family, the road less traveled. I put myself through military, college, graduate school. So I got to be OK with being different.

Where did you used to shop as a youngster?

I shopped at the Gallery. My mother used to take me to Snellenburg's and Lit Brothers and Gimbels. We want to bring back Market Street to being the shopping district for Philadelphia.

Title: Chief executive.

Home: Berwyn.

Grew up: South Philadelphia.

Family: Wife, Dawn; daughter, Bethann, 24.

Diplomas: Bishop Neumann High School, Temple University, urban studies; University of Arizona, master's in urban planning.

Shopping: "I enjoy it. I can appreciate quality. I understand value. I get excited about discounts."

Recent purchase: At Gallery's Century 21, a Pucci blouse for his daughter.

 Insight: "Many executives have ADD, because [they have] the ability to move from topic to topic and be comfortable with it."

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Name: Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust.

Where: Philadelphia.

What: Owner, manager of 30 million sq. feet of retail properties, primarily malls.

Nearby: The Gallery, Exton Square, Plymouth Meeting, Springfield, Willow Grove Park, Cherry Hill, Moorestown, Voorhees Town Center, Cumberland.

2014 Dollars: $145.1 million in funds from operations on $432.7 million in revenues. EndText

Is the mall dead? No way, says PREIT's Joe Coradino. www.philly.com/jobbing

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jvonbergen@phillynews.com