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Alumnus Carlos NeuhausPeople in Peru told Thunderbird alumnus Carlos Neuhaus he was crazy when he asked for money to build a huge shopping mall in north Lima.

Today, Mega Plaza attracts more than 3 million visitors a month and generates about $270 million per year in sales. Bankers and developers who called him crazy are now lining up to copy his success.

“Now everybody thinks malls are a good idea,” Neuhaus told about 50 people during a Global Issues Forum presentation May 22 at Thunderbird. “That’s a problem for us. Now we have competition.”

Neuhaus, a 1974 Thunderbird graduate, serves as executive director of several of his group’s companies, including Ay F Wiese S. A., Inmuebles Panamericana S. A., Negocios e Inmuebles S.A. and Agroempaques S. A. He also serves as director of Banco del Trabajo, president of Ingeniería Corporativa S.A. and adviser to the Augusto N. Wiese Foundation. 

Neuhaus said the success of Mega Plaza did not come easily.

“After knocking on the doors of like eight banks, finally one bank listened,” he said.
Construction started in February 2002, and the mall opened about nine months later.

Lenders had good reasons to be leery.

Terrorism in Peru had chased many people from public places such as shopping centers and theaters in the 1980s. Peruvian developers did not build many malls in the years that followed, and those who tried struggled with cost overruns and bad financial structures.

But Neuhaus had market research that suggested Mega Plaza could generate $67 million in sales its first year. Lenders remained cautious and adjusted this projection to $55 million.

It turns out both figures were off. The mall actually generated about $107 million in sales its first year, including sales tax revenue.

Neuhaus said his group’s market research showed that people in Lima wanted the mall to feel Peruvian rather than American. They wanted a place where they could attend concerts, play soccer and gather as families.

Mega Plaza delivered all of this. Neuhaus says singers and other artists perform free shows in the main plaza, and as many as 40,000 people visit the mall at the same time.

Market research also showed that people wanted a place where they could buy groceries.

Shopping malls in the United States don’t usually include supermarkets, but the idea made sense in Peru, where families spend about 40 percent of their money on food.

Neuhaus said his group now projects $340 million in annual sales by 2012. Already, he said, the mall has created 5,000 direct jobs to spur the economy.

“At the beginning of my career, I thought malls were a frivolous thing,” he said. “Now I realize that they can be a big boost to the national and local economy.”