Suburban Shopping Mall Pioneer, Simon, Dies

Melvin Simon, often credited as the visionary who led shoppers out of downtowns and into suburbia, died Wednesday. The Brooklyn native started his business with strip malls in the Indianapolis area. His targets broadened not only by location as his real estate firm's portfolio grew throughout the U.S. Midwest, but also by project size and mix. Melvin Simon & Associates served notice on a new kind of retail/entertainment experience with the development of the 4.2 million-square-foot Mall of America, which opened in Bloomington, Minn. in 1992.

Simon’s suburban business strategy, his innovative mix of anchor department stores and smaller specialty stores and his pioneering plan for outlet centers built Simon Property Group into the nation’s largest public real estate company. The group owns or has interest in 386 properties in North America, Europe and Asia. It is also the U.S.’s largest mall operator. More than 2.8 billion visitors spend more than $60 billion in its in its properties.