Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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Island HoppIng Douglass Karp reveals a few of his favorite things about Nantucket. CatCh of the day: "I love the Nantucket Boat Basin. My favorite boats are the Althea K and the Absolute. Pete Kaizer and Brian Borgeson are the best captains around." eat like a loCal: "Topper's at The Wauwinet, Brant Point Grill at White Elephant, and Straight Wharf, where Gabriel Frasca makes an amazing clambake. Another favorite is the lobster roll at the Straight Wharf Fish Store." Post-beaCh hangout: "Cru. You can't beat the location on the harbor and the great drink selection. And of course, the bartenders are second to none." beaCh bliss: "Surfside is my favorite beach because it has plenty of parking, restrooms, a great snack shack, and miles and miles of sand." clockwise from top left: The living room of the White Elephant Loft at 32 Main Street; a view from the White Elephant Loft; (from left) Jayne Carvelli-Sheehan, Douglass Karp, Setti D. Warren, and Dr. Kevin Tabb at the opening ceremony for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "When you're going into a community, it's their kingdom. you don't Want to invade; you Want to be let in." —douglass karp that Karp also learned from his dad. "My father always said, 'When you sit at a table, you want every- one to wa lk away happy.'" Case in point: W hen residents started banging pots over the increase in traffic on Route 9 that Chestnut Hill Square would br ing, t he compa ny sca led back t he project a nd worked with the state to ease access. "When you're going into a community, it's their kingdom," Karp says. "You don't want to invade; you want to be let in." Although his father became a real estate titan, Karp was never content to rest on his family's lau- rels. Growing up in nearby Weston, he started his own business in 1992 while still a high school stu- dent , a long w it h Ben Fischma n, son of his dad's pa r t ner Steven Fischma n. H ip -hop cult ure wa s f lourishing, and the two bugged their fathers about opening stores in their malls to sell baseball caps. They began with a cart at The Atrium in Chestnut Hill. "We had to pay rent and all the extra charges like anyone else," Karp says. Over the next seven years, the company, Lids, expanded to more than 300 locations nationwide. Then Karp's father asked if he'd consider becoming the project manager for a new property he was building on Nantucket, the White Elephant Hotel. It was a difficult offer to refuse. Karp had spent summers on Nantucket. He played Wiff le ball on the lawn of The Wauwinet, a New England Development property on the island, while it was under construc- tion, and he fished for stripers in Nantucket Sound. Karp took the ferry to check out the White Elephant on a Thursday and started as project manager the following Monday. Over the next 16 years, Karp worked his way up through the ranks to president. While his father presciently saw the rise of indoor shopping malls in the '70s, he also anticipated their demise, selling a significant portion of the mall portfolio in 1999. Since then, New England Development has con- centrated on outdoor shopping centers, particularly "lifestyle malls," featuring a mix of big-box stores, high-end specialty boutiques, and restaurants. With its wealthy, educated population, Chestnut Hill was the perfect location for the concept. Karp set out to transform the area, bringing in SoulCycle and a tony Equinox fitness center and convincing the upscale supermarket chain Wegmans to open its first urban store. As the property developed, it expanded its focus on health-conscious consumers, adding the athletic clothing store Athleta, a medi- cal building, the locavore restaurant Seasons 52, and the salad mecca Sweetgreen. Although his father is still active in New England Development as chairman and CEO, he has ceded control of day-to-day operations to Karp, who is cur- rently putting the finishing touches on a new outdoor shopping center in West wood. "I've had a g reat experience watching my father and Steve Fischman running the company over the years, so it's been pretty seamless," he says of the torch passing. "It's an honor. It's something I don't take lightly." BC 60 bostoncommon-magazine.com PEOPLE View from the Top