Rethinking Regency Mall

[Charles Hunter]

Tear down the West Mall?  Taking it back to the original size?
BRING BACK ANNIE-TIQUES!!! 

[heights unknown]

Wishful thinking.  Leave everything as is and reconstruct or modernize to fit whatever new scheme they come up with for Regency once the mall is history.

"HU"

[Bostech]

And who would pay for this project?

[thelakelander]

^Tearing down Regency?  Either the current owner or a development group that would purchase the property from them.

[sheclown]

Unfortunately malls are old-fashioned.  This area is built around a mall.  It has cool history.  Maybe it could return to the 60s mall it was and be kitschy.

Retro Mall.

[coredumped]

I'd miss sears, maybe they'd move somewhere else in the mall, like that empty furniture store. I'll say this, parking at regency is much better than SJTC, which I work less than a mile from and avoid like the plague.

[Sportmotor]

Retro mall...


Id go to it!

[CS Foltz]

Too bad we can't get "Retro Rail" involved in it also!

[stjr]

Simon Properties, owner of the Avenues, SJTC, OP Mall, and the Outlet Malls in St. Augustine is now offering to buy the bankrupt owner of Regency, literally cornering the Jax area mall market:

Simon Property Group Inc. offered to buy General Growth Properties Inc. for about $10 billion as the world's largest shopping-mall operator seeks to absorb the No. 2 mall owner in the U.S. as it grapples with bankruptcy.

Although shopping-mall real-estate investment trusts have been struggling with declines in consumer spending, Simon is viewed as one of the healthiest. It reported better-than-expected quarterly results last month, and although Simon's business was still hurt by write-downs and lower occupancy rates, it predicted brighter days for 2010.

Meanwhile, Simon raised several billion dollars in the latter part of 2009 looking for opportunities to take advantage of woes in the commercial real-estate sector. Simon had said earlier this month it wasn't in active negotiations with General Growth.

The Chicago-based owner of 200 U.S. malls, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April, taking 166 of its malls into the case with it. Since then, it has restructured and extended the due dates of $11.6 billion in mortgages on its malls. But it still needs to reach similar deals with holders of another $3 billion of mortgages and to pay its $7 billion of unsecured debt with either cash or equity.

Simon said Tuesday its proposed deal would accelerate General Growth's emergence from bankruptcy court. The offer gives creditors about $7 billion in considerations by providing a 100% cash recovery of par value plus accrued interest and divided to holders of various debt and securities.

General Growth shareholders would receive more than $9 as share, including $6 in cash plus assets valued at more than $3 a share. It is also prepared to offer Simon common shares instead of cash to General Growth holders interested in owning Simon stock.

Secured debt on General Growth's portfolio would remain in place.

A General Growth spokesman wasn't immediately available to comment.

Simon Property's stock closed Friday at $72 and wasn't active premarket.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704804204575069081644845898.html?mod=WSJ_HomeAndGarden_sections_Commercial

[Doctor_K]

Well, if they can purchase the property and do something constructive and/or creative with it, then so be it.  Deep down and in theory, I'm not necessarily a fan of one group having a monopoly on all the malls, but I don't knowhow big a deal it really is.

Hopefully something good comes out of it.

[thelakelander]

Or they'll just shut it down to send the remaining customers to their existing properties?

[Doctor_K]

Or they'll just shut it down to send the remaining customers to their existing properties?

There's that, too.  With an extinct and empty shell, there's no worry of business displacement and such a revamp can occur that much more easily, no?  At least, in theory?

[thelakelander]

Sure, as long as Simon allows it.

[Charles Hunter]

Sure, as long as Simon allows it.

You mean, "Simon sez"??

[stjr]

In some ways, a Simon takeover of Regency may increase the likelihood of a quicker redevelopment.  If Simon drove all the tenants to its other malls, it would still keep most of the business it acquired.  Meanwhile, it would have total freedom to extract new value out of the buildings and real estate remaining at the Regency site.  Kind of a cake and eat it too proposition.

Only Simon could really pull this off given their position in our market.  Any other owner would likely have to attempt to salvage their investment by trying to keep the tenants at Regency and poaching a few from Simon as opposed to writing off the whole mall and starting over.