I am familiar with SPG. In my area, it seems like half their malls are undergoing major conversions from traditional retail centers to mixed-use properties or simply large condo/apartment developments.
The mall I referred to in Post #13 already has a pretty big condo complex added to it. Last time I checked (a couple of years ago) the cheapest unit you could find there was $600K and many of the units were selling for $800K and up.
When covid hit, Simon went down to about 45, and I told my rich buddy, who owns. Comm RE. to load up on it. He bought a load of it at 54 and I urged him to take off half last time it was up > 100. Very good trade.
More to your point, there was talk of subdividing what are known as the “anchor tenant” spaces of some of their malls, which were at the time not doing well. In other words, subdivide the jc penney’s, the Macy’s, etc etc. There was even talk of converting some of those big spaces to marijuana grow operations. And yes, talk of converting the big boxes into residential. I have not been following it all that closely.
But what I can tell you is, the guys at Simon are very, very sharp operators. Best in the business. It is often said that when you buy a stock in the Warren Buffett sense of the word, not just as a day trade, you are buying the stock plus you are buying the management of the company. There would be no better example of that than these guys. They did not get to be number one in the business by being idiots. I am rather surprised that the stock decline from about 1:30 back down to about a hundred and now is apparently staging a U-turn back upwards, but they are the ones who know what they’re doing, and I am not.