Manager, Retail Experience & Place Activation

The Manager of Retail Experience & Place Activation serves as the on-site lead, responsible for executing approved asset strategies, events, and placemaking initiatives that bring the retail brand and destination vision to life. This role partners closely with Property Marketing, Leasing, and Property Management to drive foot traffic, customer engagement, and tenant performance through high-quality on-site execution, while providing critical local insight and feedback to inform broader marketing efforts. They translate strategy and standards into tangible, hospitality-driven interactions that foster community, elevate satisfaction, and support asset performance.

• Execute approved asset-level strategies, campaigns, and initiatives.
• Support execution of the annual plan and approved budget.
• Manage local calendars to ensure alignment with campaign timing and on-site readiness.
• Coordinate on-site execution of creative, digital, and traditional channels in partnership with Central Marketing and external vendors.
• Plan and execute events, activations, seasonal programming, and grand openings.
• Coordinate vendors, logistics, timelines, permits, and on-site operations to ensure polished execution.
• Partner with property management team members and tenants to deliver experiential moments that drive traffic and sales.
• Support execution across retail, mixed-use, and destination programming, including evenings and weekends as required.
• Deliver customer-facing experiences, activations, and communications that enhance the customer journey and reinforce destination positioning.
• Serve as a visible on-site presence during key moments, fostering hospitality and community.
• Share customer feedback and insights to inform experience enhancements.
• Serve as the primary on-site partner to tenants for experience delivery
• Foster strong relationships with retailers, community partners, and local organizations.
• Enable tenant participation in approved activations and destination moments.
• Ensure all on-site experiences, events, signage, and collateral are executed in accordance with approved brand and place standards.
• Flag risks, deviations, or local sensitivities that could impact brand integrity and escalate for guidance as needed.
• Ideate with and approve third party agency’s local content calendars by capturing and publishing authentic, on-site content reflecting events, tenant moments, and day-to-day experiences.
• Ensure local content aligns with brand, campaign, and messaging priorities, reinforcing place and destination positioning.
• Share local content insights and learnings to inform ongoing planning.
• Provide regular reporting on event performance, traffic, and customer engagement.
• Share qualitative, on-the-ground insights and recommendations to inform optimization.
• Support data collection and post-event analysis as required.
• Create and manage the asset level budget in consultation with Property Marketing
• Manage processing of approved invoices related to events and experiences.
• Track event-related expenses and manage budget forecasting.
• Manage relationships with local agencies, vendors, and event partners.
• Work with property level PR agency to deliver on approved releases and media moments
• Partner with Corporate Communications teams to ensure consistency and alignment with broader corporate initiatives.
• Support on-site execution of approved media moments, brand events, and PR activations.
• Flag local opportunities or sensitivities that may impact communications.
• Partner with Corporate Communications teams to ensure consistency and alignment with broader corporate initiatives.
• Partner closely with Property Marketing and Asset-Level teams to refine event strategies and campaign direction to improve performance.
• Serve as the on-site lead, translating strategy into high-quality, locally relevant experiences.
• Act as a two-way conduit between on-site teams and Marketing, sharing insights, feedback, and opportunities from the ground.

Minimum Requirements include: 

• Bachelor’s degree events, marketing, hospitality, public relations, business administration, or related field from an accredited institution.

• Four or more years of experience in event planning required, ideally exposure to retail marketing and activation.

• Excellent written, presentation, and verbal communication skills.

• Must be a self-starter, able to manage multiple projects simultaneously with minimum supervision.

• Proficiency with budget creation and management

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office products.

• Experience with Canva, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and/or InDesign, a plus.

• Proficiency with all forms of digital communication and social media platforms.

• Above-average ability to organize, manage time, understand and set priorities, and multi-task while maintaining deadlines.

• Strong interpersonal, analytical, organizational, and time management skills, consistent attention to detail, and the ability to deal effectively with people at all levels.

• High energy, versatile, and self-directed.

• Unwavering commitment to integrity, the firm’s Guiding Principles, and our Leadership Principles.

• Ability to lift 25lbs.

• Ability to stand and walk up to several hours per day, including climbing stairs.

• Ability to work occasional nights and weekends for special event management.

• This is an on-site position at the property management office(s).

• Compensation: $97,000 - $115,000