I spoke with the mall manager at Penn Square today and learned some interesting facts. As most of you know, Simon Property Group, the largest owner and manager of mall property in the US, purchased Penn Square in a huge property acquisition in 2002. Penn Square was formerly owned by Urban Retail, Inc. based out of Chicago. Bob Landdec, manager at Penn Square said that the overall focus of Simon is far different from the focus that Urban Retail had. Urban Retail budgeted most of their capital expenditures money on appearance related items, at the expense of operational related items. Simon tries to keep a good mix on capital expenditures. For instance, Landdec said that they were currently in the midst of having to spend $1.5 million to replace 36 rooftop airconditioner units at the mall. Under Simon, the replacement probably would've been on a schedule, so the cost wouldn't have been so great at one time. The next project will be taclking a complete roof replacement, something that under Simon management problably would've also taken place a little at a time over the past few years, instead of all at once.

Simon, as opposed to Urban, also spends a great deal more money trying to attract quality upscale tenants to the mall.....this is the reason we're seeing better national retailors move into Penn Square.

Bob Landdec said keeping up the appearance of the mall is extremely important as well though. Simon doesn't neglect that, but they also realize there are other issues to deal with. Urban Retail neglected many of those important areas.

Urban Retail spent $1.5 million to renovate the appearance of the mall back in 2002. Would Simon have done this? Of course! But maybe not in the same fashion. Urban Retail alone spent $400,000 on the fountain in center court. That's an awful lot for one attraction. Since being installed, this fountain has been nothing but a maintenance headache.

Anyways, it sounds like Penn Square is in good hands. With the focus now evenly divided between tenant acquisition, operational repairs (roofs, AC units, etc.), and appearance updates, the mall will be well maintained across the board, where as before, only the appearance end, for the most part, was bein kept up!

Continue to look forward to new upscale stores moving into the market.

Jos A Bank is already putting in a nice outside facade on their new location at the main enrance of the mall. J. Jill has started construction next to Pottery Barn Kids. And White House/Black Market has signed a long term lease to move into cener court space in Spring 2005 (OU/OSU Store Divided will keep their short term lease on that space until White House/Black Market begins development). Picture People is locating upstairs next to Casual Corner!

Penn Square continues to have a waiting list, showing their strength in the OKC market.