Longtime W.C. Bradley Company executive set to retire

For 31 years, Mat Swift has been the driving force behind the W.C. Bradley Company’s real estate arm, implementing major developments that have transformed Columbus — from Maple Ridge to downtown.

Swift, who turns 70 in August, will be retiring as president of the Columbus-based company’s Real Estate Division before the end of year, Swift and company officials have recently confirmed.

The Bradley Company is deep into a national search to find a replacement, President and Chief Executive Officer Marc R. Olivié said late last week. The Real Estate Division employs about 15 people and its holdings and developments are now concentrated in downtown Columbus and along the Phenix City riverfront.

“I am the driver of the buggy, but there are others who did a lot of the heavy lifting,” Swift said recently as he discussed retirement.

It has been an interesting ride for Swift, who had been a real estate law attorney for 14 years when he got an offer to join The Bradley Company.

He was instrumental in the commercial and residential development of Brookstone subdivision and its sprawling office center; Bradley Park retail development; Maple Ridge golf community; and most recently, downtown Columbus and the Chattahoochee riverfront redevelopment.

The news of Swift’s retirement comes two weeks after The Bradley Company broke ground on a $52 million riverfront apartment building just north of the 13th Street bridge. It is the first project in a mixed use development that will transform the nearly 7.5 acres between 13th and 14th streets along the river.

“Talk about going out on a high,” Olivié said. “This is truly, truly going out on a high — the groundbreaking of a brand new building, the largest commercial- private construction in downtown Columbus, the largest real estate investment for us as far as a single building is concerned — and it’s not enough for him. This is just the first piece.”

Swift said it was difficult to leave as this project, being marketed as The Rapids at Riverfront Place, starts to come out of the ground, but the timing is right for him and the company.

“When you are 70 and have 10 grandchildren, you start thinking about your time and being with your family,” Swift said. “That was part of it. The other part is as I look down the road at all the exciting projects that The Bradley Company Real Estate Division had got along the riverfront, I see a huge opportunity, but it requires some fairly strategic long-term decisions.”

And Swift knew he would not be there to continue to play the long game, something The Bradley Company has accomplished downtown.

“It wouldn’t be fair for me to make this decision and leave a few years from now and expect my successor to come in and have to live with a lot of these decisions,” Swift said. “Some of these are 15-year, 20-year decisions. I felt it was timely to bring in some younger talent who has some experience in urban mixed-use developments, and let that talent be a part of the decision-making process.”

Swift steered The Bradley Company from a suburban real estate firm to the key private player in the renovation of downtown Columbus. To understand the magnitude of The Bradley Company’s downtown reach, one needs to understand how the entire real estate focus shifted about a decade ago.

With a proposed development similar to Maple Ridge in the Auburn-Opelika area on the drawing board, The Bradley Company changed lanes and decided to concentrate all of its resources and efforts in the shadows of its downtown Front Avenue office.

“When I came in, we were doing all types of real estate projects in all areas of Columbus, as well as the World Golf Village in Florida,” Swift said. “We were all things to all people back then. Ten years ago, we made the strategic decision to only focus on downtown. We finished Maple Ridge and we were going to go do another golf community over in Auburn-Opelika. We stepped back, said, ‘No, let’s focus on downtown.’”

Today, the accomplishments are many and include the redevelopment of the Eagle & Phenix Mills complex into condominiums, apartments and restaurant space; the Synovus Centre; and office buildings, retail, restaurant and residential development scattered throughout downtown but concentrated on Broadway and the riverfront. The Bradley Company and its foundation arm have made significant contributions to the Columbus State University RiverPark campus, the construction of the Chattahoochee River whitewater rafting course, the Phenix City amphitheater and the River Club, as well as other projects.

That decision to focus downtown was like putting a “booster rocket” on redevelopment, said business owner and investor Buddy Nelms, who started investing in downtown property and businesses beginning in the mid-1980s.

“It is what really got it going down here,” Nelms said.

You talk to Swift about his role in the resurgence downtown and he deflects the credit.

“You start with the vision of Bill Turner, Jimmy Blanchard, Steve Butler, Brad Turner and John Turner,” Swift said of those who made the early commitments to improving downtown Columbus. “Their vision for the entire downtown and their incredible desire to make not only our properties — but all properties — better in downtown. They were the ones who had the vision.”

Swift was a major player in the decision to focus on downtown, said Butler, now chairman of The Bradley Company, having replaced Bill Turner in that role.

“We made the decision, and Mat led it,” Butler said. “He had a group of people who were experienced in suburban development and we began this path of ‘redaptive’ reuse and conversion. And all of it was difficult. There were problems with everything we tried. He had to learn all that and do it, and he led his team to accomplish all that.”

Swift has had a clear vision of what this whole development of downtown should look like, Olivié said.

“I remember coming here eight and a half years ago and sitting down with Mat and talking about the strategic plan and what that was,” Olivié said. “He explained the vision to me of what it meant.”

Olivié said he was impressed by Swift’s approach.

“He was not looking two or three years ahead,” Olivié said. “He was looking 20 years ahead of what this could be and how we could get there, how these pieces fit together and how it would work. I have looked with amazement at the development that has happened in the last eight years. A lot of that has been driven by the vision Mat has brought and it has incited others to also invest in downtown.”

There was a time when there was little community ownership of downtown, and Swift remembers it well. He tells a story about Rozier Dedwylder, a longtime local architect and the first executive director of Uptown Columbus Inc., who died in 2006.

“Rozier Dewwylder would tell you back in the ’80s, nobody wanted to come downtown, much less own it,” Swift said. “Now, everybody wants to come downtown, they want to own it. And when they have a wedding and they bring in their friends from out of town, they bring them downtown.”

Richard Bishop, the retired president of Uptown Columbus Inc., and the Business Improvement District, has watched what he called Swift’s steady leadership.

“He’s by true definition a behind-the-scenes visionary leader,” Bishop said. “He doesn’t take near the credit he deserves for all he has helped drive.”

In the early days of Nelms’ downtown investment, Swift became a confidant and, through Dedwylder, helped steer Nelms in the right direction. Today, Nelms has significant real estate holdings on Broadway an 11th Street. His restaurants include The Loft and Mabella’s, and he is an owner in Ride On, a downtown bicycle shop.

“Mat sits on a lot of boards and he is one of those guys who asks questions then actually listens to the answers,” Nelms said. “When I was starting downtown and literally every door was getting slammed in my face, Mat, through Rozier, reached out to me. That is how he did it — he was a behind-the-scenes guys.”

As Nelms became more successful, there was something else about Swift that he found endearing.

“He is one of those guys who is actually joyful when others have success,” Nelms said. “And that joy comes straight from his heart. He’s happy when others are doing things to move along downtown.”

The successes have been many, but there are more to come, Swift said.

“What’s exciting is, I really believe we’re not even halfway there,” Swift said. “I believe the future bodes so well for the entire uptown area and the riverfront district.”

Butler, who calls Swift “a brother,” started to form a bond with Swift almost 60 years ago when the two were on the same Little League baseball team in Lakebottom Park. Butler offers the highest praise for the role Swift has played in downtown redevelopment.

“A lot of people get credit,” Butler said. “The historic preservationists, the Springer defenders, Bill Turner, Jim Blanchard, Rozier Dedwylder, Harry Kamensky, Richard Bishop. ... But nobody gets more credit than Mat. He’s done more than anybody.”

This story was originally published May 16, 2017 at 5:52 AM with the headline "Longtime W.C. Bradley Company executive set to retire."