The Short Version

• Bil Ingraham leverages his performing arts background to drive creative leasing strategies at Centennial.

• When at Westfield Group, he helped quadruple revenue from brand-sponsorship space and later boosted PREIT’s ancillary income by 150%.

• Ingraham champions “uncommon-area leasing,” turning traditional mall common areas into dynamic revenue generators.

• His local-first approach incubates small businesses and pop-ups into long-term retail success stories.

He’s performed “Amadeus” onstage, rubbed elbows with traders on the Chicago Board Options Exchange floor, sped to top finishes in sprint triathlons and transformed specialty leasing spaces into revenue generators for owners of shopping centers nationwide.

While friends and colleagues call him a Renaissance man for such wide-ranging talents, Bil Blane Ingraham, executive vice president of business development and revenue for retail real estate owner and operator Centennial, prefers to describe himself as a “change agent, community builder and people motivator,” he said.

An Unconventional Path to Retail Real Estate

Ingraham had excelled in music and theater at Gateway Regional High School in western Massachusetts, even landing an audition at the prestigious Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh before choosing, from among other scholarship offers, a university more than 800 miles from home on the prairies of Central Illinois. At the time, Illinois Wesleyan University was one of the few colleges in the country offering a musical theater degree instead of separate music and theater disciplines, he explained.

Starting in 2004, following a short stint in sales for financial services firm Hyperfeed Technologies, Ingraham spent his days introducing emerging e-trading platforms to Chicago traders. At night, he rehearsed and performed with the city’s Porchlight Music Theatre, where he also served as board member, fundraiser and marketer.

A few business acquaintances knew Ingraham was also an actor, but he didn’t grasp just how many until flattering reviews of his performance in the musical “Hello Again,” appeared alongside his photo in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. When he strode onto the Chicago Board Options Exchange floor, Ingraham was delighted to see that traders had splashed clipped-out reviews across the walls. “I will never forget that moment,” he said. “It made me feel accepted as my authentic self.”

A Career Pivot Leads to Big Wins in Sponsorship and Ancillary Revenue

Though he was making a decent living, a revelation struck Ingraham on a milestone birthday. “I asked myself: ‘What am I doing at age 30 in the financial industry with a liberal arts degree and not [working] in a more creative field?’”

Ingraham spied a posting for a partnership marketing job at Westfield Group and pursued it. “Westfield loved my blend of sales, financial and marketing experience and my creative background,” he said. “They took a chance on me.” Ingraham became part of a six-person team, selling brand-sponsorship space at centers. He quickly made a name for himself and soon took over as the REIT’s East Coast and West Coast lead for selling such space, eventually quadrupling that trade from a $4 million piece of the business to a $16 million force, he said.

With mixed feelings, Ingraham departed both acting and Westfield in 2012, leaving Chicago for an East Coast role as vice president of marketing and partnerships with Philadelphia-based PREIT. He felt at ease there because the company prioritized innovative thinking, as well as transparency, empowerment, collaboration and accountability, traits Ingraham had come to value in previous posts. Transparency, he pointed out, spawns collaborative and effective work environments. In his time with PREIT, Ingraham bumped up ancillary revenue 150% and drove a 300% increase in the company’s digital customer-loyalty database over just a two-year span.

Then came an opportunity at Dallas-based Centennial. “I realized I was a good brand marketing guy who’d love to see [what] creative things I could do in specialty leasing,” he said. Ingraham joined the firm in 2019 as senior vice president of local leasing and business development and advanced to executive vice president three years later.

Today, it’s Centennial that provides Ingraham his stage, as he travels the country shaping underutilized mall spaces into lively, value-added emporiums. “My cup is filled creatively, bringing entertainment and engagement to communities at exciting venues,” he said.

Among his early strategies for revitalizing Centennial’s common areas was reframing specialty leasing as local leasing. “We decided to prioritize leasing with a local flair, especially since so many malls were still a sea of sameness,” he said. “It’s an approach that allows us to bring out the character of each community and to identify the best operators of the best concepts, not only with an eye at retaining them but incubating them into something bigger.” 

Ingraham’s present duties include leasing to pop-ups, test concepts, sponsors, mall partners and kiosk and cart vendors while overseeing special events and cutting deals for short-term inline tenants, electric vehicle charging stations, high-speed data networks and other connected-site opportunities. “We call this ‘uncommon-area’ leasing instead of common-area leasing,” he explained, “because there are so many great opportunities now at centers to create growth and value.”

Reframing Specialty Leasing to Unlock Untapped Value at Malls

Emerging from COVID, Centennial had a modest seven centers under its belt. It since has grown its portfolio to 30 properties totaling 20 million square feet in 16 states and now employs 300. Its centers include Rhode Island’s Providence Place, California’s Valencia Town Center, and The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Texas. While Centennial’s portfolio was expanding, Ingraham’s area of expertise, specialty leasing, also has risen in prominence. Retail properties of all stripes have become more aggressive in leasing underutilized areas, Ingraham said, including trophy properties that once resisted the trend. “We’re all realizing that these types of tenants can enhance properties in quality and in sales.”

Ingraham likes to empower center managers “to pull whatever levers they need to pull as we collaborate with local tenants on the high-quality presentation of their store through design and lighting,” he said. “Whether we own a property or are hired to manage a center’s leases, we always think and act like an owner, no matter if we’re working with the big REITs or a B mall.”

Ingraham played a key role in Promenade Shops’ Silver win in the ICSC Visual Victories Awards in 2024. Centennial partnered with Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital to energize the Center Valley, Pennsylvania, property’s town square, applying the hospital’s vibrant colors and playful logo lettering to light-pole banners, shade structures, walkways and walls.

Leading with Authenticity and Championing Inclusive Retail Leadership

Ingraham, who identifies as gay, acknowledged he was fortunate to enter commercial real estate when discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community had eased greatly in business and society. “I realized just how blessed I was to come of age in the ‘Will & Grace’ era,” he said, referencing the long-running NBC sitcom with two gay principal characters. “My ability to be looked at as equal for the first time in my life meant so much.” It also helped him realize how important diverse leadership is, he said, noting that women make up 50% of Centennial’s leadership teams.

Ingraham, 51, and his husband, Brad, have been together for nearly 30 years. “He’s an architect and interior designer and the perfect yin to my yang,” Ingraham said. “Brad has always been very accepting of what I do, even … when I was rehearsing every night.”

Among other supporters who have helped boost Ingraham’s career “are several strong women whom I consider my unsung heroes,” he said. They include Kristen Mologousis — current chief procurement officer and head of global market data services at Northern Trust, who gave Ingraham his start in sales — and the “dynamic” Deborah Flattery at Westfield, now with Brookfield Properties, “who provided me with a master class in enclosed malls.” At PREIT, Heather Crowell, now with Gregory FCA, “encouraged outside-of-the-box thinking and supported my growth into senior management,” he said. He also praised former PREIT Services president Joe Coradino, later PREIT CEO and now CorePlus Strategies CEO, for recognizing and putting to use Ingraham’s creative streak.

A Life of Creativity, Community Impact and Commercial Vision

In the Dallas area, where he moved when he joined Centennial, Ingraham is a regular supporter of performing arts organizations, particularly the Bruce Wood Dance Dallas company. Still an avid runner, he enjoys small-group travel, museums, architecture and edgy restaurants. Writing is yet another outlet for his creativity and insight. He has penned pieces for Institutional Real Estate and authored a series of columns for LinkedIn followers called The UnCommon Area: Making the Mundane Magnificent.

Ingraham is also spurred on by the people who gather in the centers he serves. “Our communities are filled with so many passionate, creative and hardworking people with such unique stories and pasts of their own,” he said. “The thought of providing them a platform to help live out their dreams motivates me every day.”