$3.6B mall deal crumbles in pandemic fallout

NEW YORK — The nation’s biggest mall owner is backing out of a $3.6 billion deal to buy a major rival as the coronavirus pandemic shakes the retail industry.

It is the second major retail deal signed before the virus hit the U.S. to crumble. The sale of Victoria’s Secret to a private equity group fell apart last month.

Simon Property Group announced it would buy Taubman in early February, just weeks before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a California man was being treated for coronavirus, the first known case in the U.S. In March, clothing stores and malls were ordered to close.

The plunge in sales for retailers since then has been unprecedented, particularly for those with a heavy presence in malls. J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus and J.Crew have all filed for bankruptcy protection this year.

Victoria’s Secret moved aggressively into malls at the direction of its parent company’s founder, Les Wexner, who wanted to push lingerie into the mainstream.

Malls have struggled for years as shopping moved online and consumers grew tired of them. Their plight even inspired a haunting YouTube channel called the Dead Mall Series.

The coronavirus has delivered a devastating blow to those that remain and also stores with a big mall footprint.

Retail consultant Jan Rogers Kniffen believes that half of the 1,000 malls in the country will either close or be unrecognizable in two years. Before the pandemic, he expected 300 to close, and that decline would take place over a decade.

The pandemic has accelerated that timeline. CBL, a Chattanooga, Tennessee, mall operator with 108 properties, warned this month that it may fail.

On Wednesday, shares of any retail chain with stores in malls plummeted. Kohl’s, Macy’s, The Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch all slumped sharply.

In its legal complaint Wednesday, Simon said that Taubman is uniquely vulnerable because most of its properties are indoor malls “that many consumers will avoid.”