David Simon, longtime chief executive of Simon Property Group, has died at the age of 64 after battling pancreatic cancer, the company said Monday, News.Az reports, citing The New York Post.
Simon led the largest mall operator in the US for more than three decades, building a vast portfolio of around 250 properties that the company either owned or held stakes in. These were primarily high-end shopping malls across the country.
Widely known as the “mall king” for his aggressive acquisition strategy, Simon expanded the company into the dominant force in U.S. retail real estate. Under his leadership, Simon Property Group came to control more retail property than any other real estate firm in the sector.
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Among its most prominent assets are Roosevelt Field on Long Island—considered one of the most successful malls in the United States—and Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in the Hudson Valley.
Eli Simon, the eldest of David’s five children, was appointed chief executive and president of the company effective Monday.
“I’ve been kind of, you know, a domineering-type CEO,” he told the Wall Street Journal last year. “Obviously, right now, that’s impossible for me to do. I still do it occasionally.”
Simon’s feats included launching a hostile takeover bid for Taubman, a rival mall operator while its chair was in prison, the Journal noted.
He was “most proud of his family, his wife of over 40 years, Jackie, and their 5 children: Eli, Rebecca, Hannah, Sam and Noah, and 7 grandchildren,” his family said in a statement.
David moved from his native Indiana to New York City to attend Columbia University, where he earned an MBA and went on to work in mergers and acquisitions on Wall Street.
He moved back to his home state to help his family’s debt-laden business, Melvin Simon & Associates, eventually taking the company public in 1993 as the biggest IPO in history for a real estate business — raising nearly $1 billion.
Simon recalled his uncle Herbert Simon saying when he returned to the family business, “You can join, but I’m not really sure what you’re going to do,” according to the Journal.
David Simon became CEO in 1995 at age 33 and orchestrated a series of big acquisitions totaling more than $40 billion, including Mills Corporation and Chelsea Property Group.
Simon fit right in in the rough-and-tumble real estate world, earning a reputation as a hard-charging rainmaker.
When Coach tried to renege on on deals to open stores in Simon-run malls in the early 2000s, “there was no shortage of profanity” coming from David, the handbag maker’s executive Todd Kahn told the Journal, adding: “You could have bang-out meetings, but if you came to a resolution and you shook hands, it was golden.”
Simon told the paper displays of his temper were “partly showmanship emphasizing a point.”
