Simon Property Group Fights To Reinvent The Shopping Mall

Hundreds of shopping centers across the U.S. are facing obsolescence, abandoned by shoppers who are going online or getting choosier about where they shop. But Roosevelt Field shows that there is still a lot of life in that American mainstay, the suburban mall. The 2.4-million-square-foot center generates about $1,000 in annual retail sales per square foot, according to real estate research firm Green Street Advisors—more than twice the national average for shopping centers. And in its combination of novelty, technology, and customer pampering, Roosevelt Field embodies the strategy that has helped its owner, Simon Property Group, navigate retail’s crisis to stay on top of the mall world. Simon, a real estate giant with headquarters in Indianapolis, has relied on aggressive dealmaking and savvy property management to bolster its position as the largest U.S. operator and developer of shopping malls. Its U.S. portfolio includes 108 malls, most of them high-grossers like Roosevelt Field, and 72 discount outlet centers. That adds up to real estate worth $110 billion. Some of the biggest and most luxurious malls in the country— including the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, King of Prussia outside Philadelphia, and the huge high-end New York outlet mall Woodbury Common—are bastions of the Simon empire. Read more at Fortune.