Marc Wainer: A one-of-a-kind mensch

It wouldn’t be far fetched to consider Marc Wainer, a legend in SA’s real estate industry, as a guardian of underdogs. 

Unlike slum landlords that demand every cent in rental payments from financially distressed tenants or declare evictions at a whim, Wainer’s approach to real estate was guided by compassion. 

When mom-and-pop businesses ran into hard times, Wainer, as a landlord, would sacrifice higher profits by accepting lower rental payments from tenants or defer their payments to a later period. 

“I used to tell my team that they should always remember that entrepreneurs or tenants, who have a small kiosk or coffee shop, rely on their businesses to pay their children’s school fees and food at home. To the extent that you can, you always have to nurse those entrepreneurs during hard times,” Wainer said in a Business Maverick interview two weeks ago. 

This is the same philosophy that Wainer recently applied when he and a group real estate CEOs – mainly shopping mall landlords – drafted wide-ranging relief measures for small businesses/tenants in financial distress due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

On 7 April, landlords agreed to offer small businesses – including restaurants, hairdressers, and travel agents – relief measures during April and May 2020 such as rental discounts of between 35% to 100% and interest-free rental deferments. In offering these relief measures, landlords will sacrifice rental income/profits of up to R3-billion.

“We need to do everything we can to help small businesses. They need the relief measures the most to preserve jobs because it will take a long time for SA’s economy to recover after Covid-19,” said Wainer. 

But sadly, he won’t be around to witness how small businesses will benefit from the relief measures because he died on Monday morning, succumbing to heart-related complications at the age of 71. 

A best friend and confidant 

In a tribute to his father or “pops”, Jordan Wainer wrote on his LinkedIn page: “Today [Monday] I begin the rest of my life, poorer for not having my best friend and confidant a phone call away but richer knowing that my parents are reunited and can continue their 40+ years together”.

“Over the past eight months, I have watched him take each day as a battle to survive without his darling wife [Lesley] by his side. I believe that for all his unyielding strength, he ultimately succumbed to a broken heart.” 

Jordan said family was everything to “pop” as “no matter who he was meeting with or what he was doing, when family called, he answered without hesitation”.

In real estate and business circles, Wainer was known as a veteran and dealmaker extraordinaire. He could tell a good or bad deal after quickly calculating the rate of return tied to a real estate deal on the back of his cigarette box. Those who interacted with him often say that Wainer had no ego and was always willing to share his knowledge about the real estate sector – acquired throughout his 40-year-career. 

“He leaves a void in the lives of people in the entire property sector who did not escape his characteristic wit, infectious laughter and his genuine love and concern for those he worked with,” said Andrew Konig, the current CEO of Redefine Properties.

Wainer’s brush with business started early in his life when he worked at his parent’s fish and grocery store in the Johannesburg suburb of Yeoville, according to his autobiography, Making My Marc: Lessons From A Life In Property. He preferred to be at the back-end of the store instead of interacting with the unpredictable personalities of patrons. In the book, Wainer said working at the family business taught him the basics of cash flow, profit margins and remaining competitive in retail. 

Start of real estate career 

But 1973 would be the year in which Wainer made a foray into the real estate sector after seeing an advertisement for a position as centre manager at the Kempton City shopping mall, one of the first shopping malls in SA. Wainer said he got the job by being the only candidate to visit the shopping mall before his interview to observe its design and tenant mix.

He went on to join Investec in 1986 as MD for property. At the time, Investec was expanding from being a small finance company with roots in Johannesburg to diversifying into the property management space in the late 90s. When he left Investec six years later, he was networked enough in the real estate industry to start his consultancy firm, Marc Wainer & Associates, in 1992. 

Wainer is most known for being the founder (and later CEO) of Redefine Properties in 1999. He and his team managed to build scale to Redefine, which had a market capitalisation of R463-million when it listed on the JSE in 2004 to having a market value of R14.8-billion today (close of JSE on Tuesday 21 April). The company owns more than 300 properties in SA including, among others, Centurion Mall in Gauteng, Matlosana Mall in the North West and Blue Route Mall in the Western Cape.

Wainer stepped down in 2014 as Redefine CEO to focus less on “the day-to-day management stuff” but to influence the company’s strategic direction behind the scenes. A few years after stepping down, he helped Redefine, which already had exposure to offshore markets including in Germany and the UK, expand its operations into Poland. 

Away from the Redefine c-suite, Wainer was passionate about mentorship as he challenged business veterans to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs. He reinvented himself by launching a television career in 2017, hosting a show called The Mentorship Challenge TV show. 

“Marc was one-of-a-kind… Marc has left on an indelible mark on the sector,” said Estienne de Klerk, the SA CEO of Growthpoint Properties. BM