Name: Deborah Foehr
Title: Owner/Broker
Company/firm: Star Commercial Real Estate, LLC
Years with company/firm: 1994
Years in field: 37
Years in real estate industry: 37
Address: 324 Ellsworth St., Bridgeport, CT 06605
Telephone: 203 557 9111
Email: [email protected]
URL: www.starcommercial.com
Real estate organizations/affiliations: ICSC, Ffld County Brokers Network
During the last 10 years of your career, which professional accomplishment, honor or achievement has meant the most to you and why?
Being chosen as exclusive broker for Crown Theatres for the Entire East Coast provided me with prestige I had not previously had before. As their broker, I could channel my efforts and resources on specific property types with specific requirements. It was wonderful getting to meet with mall owners of tremendous clout such as GGP, Oliver MacMillian and Simon DeBartelo to name just a few; something most Brokers just dream about. Having a singular focus as I reviewed the proposals that arrived each week was also so much easier than looking at every available space wherever I was. After putting together enough sites for a road trip, I would travel to each site, do my own market studies and decide if it was worthy of a look by the CEO. I got to know shopping centers and malls from Miami to Conn. and loved every minute of it. I traveled the East Coast closing deals and opening multiple theatres in Fla., Md., Conn., Il. and Minn.

Who or what has been the strongest influence on your career and why?
In the late '80s most real estate brokers and salespeople began to specialize in a particular aspect of the commercial market. For me, not liking to wear suits, I choose retail as my specialty. In-house leasing reps typically wore slacks and shirts or sweaters. I guess it was one way to even the playing field as brokers have always been the bottom step on the ladder. I just loved retail....every transaction, every client was so different from the one before. It was so much more fun than office leasing, looking at boxes within boxes; retail was and is always so different and it was and is all about: Location, location, location.
Whether I'm representing a client like I did with Crown or leasing on behalf of the landlords, it has always been fun and profitable. Over the ensuing years I've had the enjoyment and income of leasing 13 stores on Main Street in Westport and opening the Flagship Talbots Kids and Talbots Men's right here in Westport. As rents on Main Street increased, I was able to move many tenants into local strip centers at much lower prices thus opening up more Main Street for higher and higher end opportunities. Licensed in both N.Y. and CT, I've had tremendous opportunities to complete leasing transactions throughout Westchester, N.Y. and all of CT as well.