Q: Why is everyone so in love with the I-25 corridor?
A: The northern area has come to fruition. There’s lots of water available. There’s a migration to the north because there are reasonable land prices.
Also, E-470 opened up the area. All these little cities up there are having tremendous growth. The builders have gone up there, and that’s spurred retail growth. They secured the land because of the residential moving there.
Some of it’s a lot of talk and no action. Some (sites) don’t have utilities. Others don’t have off-ramps (from I-25). We do.
We’re going early out there at Larkridge, and we’re building a power center out there.
Q: How did you get started in real estate?
A: My father was a general contractor. In the summers growing up, I worked for him.
Before I left for the service, my father gave me a single-family residential lot. He said, “If I give you a lot and you own it, you’ll come back and live in Denver and build on it.”
I got together with a cousin who left New York and came here. The two of us built that house, sold it and named our company Perl-Mack. We started in ’52 and stayed together for 30 years. We built over 22,000 single-family and multi-family units, and we built several shopping centers.
After 30 years, we each decided to go our own way. My oldest son, Jay Perlmutter, had been working for us. He and I formed Jordon Perlmutter Co. in 1983. We’ve continued to do the things I’d been doing, except we dropped building single-family housing.
Q: How has planning a community changed since you started in the business?
A: The first large planned community we did was Northglenn. It was located in Adams County. It was 2,900 acres. It just came about by us needing to find land to build on so we could continue our building business.
We had built some communities prior to that, but this was the largest. By virtue of doing this pre-planned community, we had the propensity for commercial use to take care of the shopping needs. By virtue of that, we got into the shopping- center business and built Northglenn Mall. It was very successful.
Q: What’s the future of the indoor, enclosed mall?
A: After building three malls, we no longer felt we were competitive. Most of the malls were being purchased by REITs (real estate investment trusts). In order to have any clout with tenants, you had to have more than a few malls. You were able to say to tenants, come with me to this location, because I’ll give you one in Chicago, too. We were not able to do that.
We think (malls) still have a place in the commercial retail business. We gave them up because we couldn’t compete in the industry. We went into the power centers.
Q: What are you most proud of, both professionally and personally?
A: I’m most proud of my family, my children and grandchildren. They’re all people who are very sensitive and people who want to make something of themselves.
It’s a combination of my wife and me. I’ve always had ambition, and always wanted to accomplish something in my life. These kids are following in those footsteps.
The other thing I’m very proud of was being the chairman and working on a nursing home built in Aurora called Shalom Park. I donated money and raised money to be able to build this facility.
When it opened, I felt very good about it. It takes care of 50 percent indigent people and 50 percent people who can pay on their own. That’s how it was conceived, and that’s how it works. I got a lot of personal satisfaction out of seeing that come to fruition. I’m still on the board.
Q: Whom do you admire most?
A: I did admire my dad. He had an eighth-grade education. He came from Russia by himself at 15 years old and was able to be a general contractor. It was sheer determination. He loved America. He said you could do what you wanted and make something of yourself.
Q: How do you determine where to donate your time?
A: I want to pay back to this community that’s been so good to me and my family. One of the other boards I’ve served on that I’ve felt a great deal of excitement about is DU.
Q: Tell me about growing up in Denver.
A: I’ve lived in Colorado all my life. I grew up on the west side of Colfax and lived in the ghetto. The majority of the people there were Jewish. We lived in our own little enclave. People didn’t lock their doors. You could walk in their houses and say hello. It was a great place to live.
Then the secret started getting out, and people started arriving here. In the business I’m in, we started taking advantage of that.
Q: Do you plan to retire?
A: I’m enjoying it so much, I don’t know what I’d do with my time. I enjoy the business, and I enjoy being with the boys and creating things. Once in a while, they follow my instructions.
I have no plans to retire. I do take a couple of months off in the summer and go to Aspen.
Q: What do you do when you’re not working?
A: I still ski when I’m up in Aspen. I do a lot of hiking and horseback riding, and I work a few hours a day. We travel. I like Italy very much, and I’ve gone to Israel several times.
Edited for space and clarity from an interview by staff writer Margaret Jackson.
