Highland Mall Redevelopment Update Thread

[priller]

http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin...595200^1808701

Dillard’s wants out of Highland Mall ‘ghost town’ ASAP
Store sues mall; seeks to void lease

Gang activity, crime and a store that sells toilet paper are some of the reasons why anchor retailer Dillard’s wants out of Highland Mall before its lease is up.

Dillard’s announced last month that it would leave Highland Mall “in the next few months,” and in a recent lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Dillard Texas LLC and The Higbee Company — both wholly owned subsidiaries of national department store chain Dillard’s Inc. — asked the court to void its contractual obligations to Highland, including paying rent on the remainder of its lease.

Dillard’s alleges that the owner — Highland Mall Limited Partnership, made up of Simon Property Group Inc. [NYSE: SPG] and General Growth Properties Inc. [NYSE: GGP], two of the country’s largest mall operators — let it deteriorate to such a degree that it has forced Dillard’s to close.

... While about 100 tenants operate in Highland, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Simon, occupancy has been the lowest of any local indoor mall for years and reached a low of 60.5 percent at the end of 2008, while its counterparts were more than 94 percent full.

[more...]