Alan Lebovitz is named senior vice president of management over CBL’s approximately 120 centers

In that role, the range of his activities there proved to be as disparate and dramatic as doing live television interviews on Black Friday and even, at one point, putting out a loading-dock fire. “My first job was a huge reality check for me,” he said. “The day-to-day operations inside a shopping center are nonstop. Every situation is so unique. It was a huge learning curve.”

It seems Lebovitz will have it no other way, though. His experiences in the trenches of mall management have served him well going through the ranks at CBL — which is today one of the country’s largest owners of malls and shopping centers and also the biggest industry name in the Southeast. “Those were invaluable experiences that I draw on daily,” he said.

In 1997 he transferred to the corporate headquarters, in Chattanooga, Tenn., as project manager in the development division. After that he held various positions in the firm’s development, leasing and management divisions before becoming vice president of asset management in 2002 and then senior vice president of asset management five years later. This past July Lebovitz, now 49, was named senior vice president of management. In this role he oversees the operations of CBL’s roughly 120 malls and shopping centers and its 300-person staff — made up largely of mall managers, marketing directors, specialty leasing managers and others at the property level. He also heads the company’s third-party and asset-management services.

Lebovitz already has strong ties to the company’s property-level teams and says he plans to build on those relationships. “I feel very connected to our mall-management teams,” he said, citing how that first job gave him an appreciation of the issues mall managers juggle on any given day. “I’ve always been drawn to the people side of the business,” he said. “I’m most excited about working more closely with our mall teams and visiting them.”

Among his priorities, he says, is making sure that communication between CBL’s home office and its property-level teams remains a two-way street. “It’s about listening to the field [teams] and making sure their voices and concerns get [heard] at the home office.” Adapting to change, both in the workforce and in the retail sector at large, is among his biggest challenges, he says. In recent years the Millennials — those born between 1980 and 1995 — have entered the workforce in droves. CBL, like other large employers, has embraced ideas intended to attract and retain young talent and to improve overall employee engagement and satisfaction. In some departments, the firm eschews the traditional cubicle model in favor of open floor plans designed to encourage collaboration and creativity. These open spaces are outfitted with whiteboard walls, stand-up tables and informal meeting areas. CBL has internal committees that work to promote relationships among colleagues as well as healthy lifestyles and community-service efforts. The firm has established a tuition-reimbursement program to encourage employees to pursue educational opportunities.

On the asset-management side, Lebovitz is working to see that CBL’s malls and shopping centers remain competitive in the face of changing shopper habits and consumer preferences. “We are starting to reimagine conventional spaces such as anchor locations,” he said. “We are also capitalizing on popular culinary trends such as food trucks. The goal is to transform traditional food courts into something more hip and healthy.”

This year CBL announced the acquisition of five Sears anchors and two Sears Auto Center spaces in a sale-leaseback. CBL will thus keep collecting rent from Sears and have control over the timing of closures as it finalizes redevelopment plans for each location.

“The goal is to keep our malls and the shopping experience as relevant as possible,” said Lebovitz, who is working with the firm’s leasing and development executives on redevelopment of those spaces.

He and his brothers Stephen (president and CEO) and Michael (executive vice president of development and administration) have worked hard to see that the company continues to “think big, stay small” — one of their grandfather’s favorite expressions. “We strive to maintain a culture within CBL that is personal, supportive and family-oriented,” said Alan. “No matter how many properties in our portfolio, we are dedicated to maintaining those standards.” (Dad Charles is CBL’s chairman.)

One of the ways the firm has been able to hold to its ethos is by making sure its far-flung employees have a voice. “We visit our teams a lot and speak to them often and bring them here for training,” said Alan. The firm’s leadership is both accessible and visible, he says.

He still enjoys rolling up his sleeves and putting out fires — of the figurative sort. “I have always been the type of person who learns best by doing, not just delegating,” he said. “I like to answer my own phone, type my own letters and call up people.”

And he is keenly aware of the legacy entrusted to him. “There is something special and gratifying,” he said, “to know that I am part of the third generation in this industry, following in my father’s and grandfather’s footsteps alongside my two brothers.”