September 2014
D I G E S T
The Official Publication of the Kiawah Island Community Association
Elisa Cooper Keeps Freshfields Fresh
Image courtesy of Freshfields Village.
The busy summer season is
winding down at Freshfields
Village after its first summer
of ownership by Northwood
Investors and as part of the
Town of Kiawah. Freshfields
Village General Manager Elisa
Cooper was hired by Kiawah
Partners in 2006, a year after
Freshfields opened, and she
has presided over its growth
from a small retail center to
a community destination,
with dining, shopping and
community events. Digest
talked with her to learn what
has changed in the last year
and what will change in the
next few.
“There are no major changes in the way I approach my work,” Elisa said.
“Kiawah Partners was a large family business with a long history on Kiawah.
After South Street Partners acquired Freshfields Village, they sold it to
Northwood Investors to improve the retail component. Northwood Retail,
the Northwood Investors retail arm, has been in existence only four years,
but the people working for them have a wealth of retail experience. So we
now have additional tools and advisors to help us grow and prosper and
be what our consumers want Freshfields to be. My job was, and still is, to
be the facilitator who makes life easier for the businesses and makes people
want to come visit here."
Elisa noted that when Freshfields opened in 2005, it was designed and
built to be an amenity for Kiawah, Seabrook and Johns Island residents.
The marketing team then decided to describe it as a gathering place, and it
has evolved as such. The emphasis on customer service and the attention
to detail in everything from architecture to merchandise turnover to
cleanliness, which was integral to the former Kiawah Partners’ management
style, still guides Freshfields management. “We have matured into a casual,
comfortable place with good service that offers what island residents and
island guests want. My role is to make the customer think, “This place is
paradise and I want to go back,” remarked Elisa.
Elisa grew up in the real estate environment. Her father was a developer and
her mother in sales, and real estate transactions were standard dinner table
conversation. At a time when fewer women had careers than they do today,
her mother was the first woman licensed in real estate sales in her Georgia
county, the first female head of the county’s Board of Realtors, and a training
broker for her firm. “She was an inspiring role model, and my father was
probably the first male 'women’s libber,'" Elisa said. “He thought a woman
could do anything a man could do if you gave her the tools.” Elisa went
to college at the all-women Agnes Scott because her parents didn’t want
her competing with men for leadership roles or to be in a male-dominated
environment. “It was not my choice,” she remarked. “But they were paying,
and they said I had to go for a year a then I could transfer anywhere I wanted.
I went off kicking and screaming, and loved it and stayed, and I had all the
opportunities they had wanted me to have.”
A psychology major, Elisa intended to specialize in play therapy. She
went to work at a Tennessee boarding school and became an outdoor
therapist, teaching high school students survival skills and teamwork. “I
did it for two years and loved it, but it was too remote and I didn’t see a
future in it. I moved back to Atlanta and became a licensed realtor, and
I went to work in real estate property management.” In Atlanta she met
her husband, a Charleston native, and they decided they wanted to raise
their children in Charleston.
In Charleston, Elisa continued to work in property management, eventually
becoming a certified property manager. She described the certificate as akin
to a master’s degree, highly sought in the property management world, but
relatively rare, a multi-year process that can take as long as 10 years. “I chose
property management over other real estate careers because I am extremely
detail oriented. Also, I had three sons in four years, and this field allowed me
to have a 9-5 career and predictable family time,” she said.
Elisa began working for the medical office real estate developer for
Roper Hospital in 1992, managing a single building, and grew with the
organization. “I built the medical buildings for their system,” she said. “My
job expanded from property manager in a building to regional manager in
the company, covering from Beaufort to Myrtle Beach and Charleston. I
helped with the initial public offering.”
Elisa draws a parallel between making the negative event of illness at Roper
as pleasant as possible for the patients, and making a retail development
as pleasant as possible for customers. She described the hospital job as,
“keeping the environment clean and nice, the elevators working, all the nuts
and bolts functioning smoothly so that the patient went away thinking that
wasn’t so bad.”
In 2005, when the IPO was imminent, she was having a glass of wine
with a peer in a different company, and the two women were discussing
the perfect job. Elisa said, “I just want to be at the beach. I love Kiawah; I
would be the operations manager at the Sanctuary.” Eight months later, the
woman called her to say that a job was open at Freshfields. “I decided it was
time for a change and I was very lucky to be offered the opportunity,” she
recalled. “In the Charleston area we are lucky to have different beaches to
go to. Kiawah’s beach is pristine and beautiful. I love to bring my workout
clothes and walk on the beach after work when I have a chance. It’s like
the edge of the world, and so inviting.”
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