David Simon, the formidable and driven billionaire leader of Simon Property Group, the nation’s largest developer and operator of traditional malls and mixed-use, lifestyle and outlet centers, died after a monthslong battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 64.
He simultaneously held the titles of chairman, president and chief executive officer.
Simon led the real estate investment trust for three decades, becoming the CEO in 1995. He was highly respected as a fierce competitor, spearheading more than $40 billion worth of takeovers of other major retail property companies.
The board named his son, Eli Simon, as the real estate giant’s new CEO and president. He will also continue as chief operating officer and a director.
In a statement, the Simon family said: “Our beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother poured his heart and soul into building Simon Property Group. He was most proud of his family, his wife of over 40 years Jackie, and their five children: Eli, Rebecca, Hannah, Sam and Noah, and seven grandchildren. We ask for privacy as we grieve our great loss.”
Simon was considered one of America’s most successful CEOs, considering his company’s long track record of profitability, enormous growth and for having a clear vision. While naysayers were predicting the death of malls, as they were losing shopper traffic, Simon had his company invest heavily into remaking properties within his company’s portfolio with new retail brands and innovative formats and predicted correctly that malls would recover after the Great Recession of 2009 and again after COVID-19.
Among Simon’s biggest, most productive and recognized malls today are Roosevelt Field in Garden City, Long Island; Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, Fla.; King of Prussia outside of Philadelphia; the Houston Galleria; Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in Central Valley, N.Y., and Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, Calif., to name just a few.
Roosevelt Field in Garden City, N.Y., is among Simon’s “A” malls.
Courtesy image
The real estate giant also accumulated partnership stakes in several major retail properties including the upscale Aventura Mall in north Miami. Most notably, Simon purchased a 27.5 percent stake in the mega Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., from a third party, but the majority owner and original developer of the property, The Triple Five Group, contested Simon’s purchase in court, which forced Simon to sell its stake to Triple Five in 2004.
David Simon was the son of the late Melvin Simon who along with his brother Herbert, founded Melvin Simon & Associates in Indianapolis in 1960. They built strip centers, urban and suburban shopping centers including enclosed malls. The Simon brothers were colorful figures, often engaging with the media, unlike David Simon who rarely gave an interview to the press. Melvin Simon also died from cancer in 2009.
David obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University in 1983. Two years later, he earned an M.B.A. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. Out of grad school, Simon worked at First Boston and later at Wasserstein Perella & Co.
In 1990, he joined his family’s business as chief financial officer. In that role, he was instrumental in lifting the company out of its financial doldrums. It was cash-poor and over-leveraged with debt. He took several actions to repair the balance sheet, including putting a temporary halt on development and pulling out of costly partnerships. His repair work set the stage for the company’s initial public offering in 1993, valued at close to $1 billion. At the time, it was the largest real estate stock offering. He added the title of chairman in 2007. The company started with 115 properties when it went public and over the years bought 300, developed over 50 and sold about 250.
In 2007, Simon led his firm’s purchase of the Mills Corp., which operated sprawling outlet centers. Then in 2020, the company purchased 80 percent of the Taubman Co. with its portfolio composed largely of traditional, high-end malls. The deal was surprising because for years, Taubman rebuffed Simon’s repeated hostile takeover advances. Simon also launched unwanted takeovers of the Macerich Co., another major REIT based in San Diego, which remains independent. But just this past June, the Simon company acquired the retail and parking components of Brickell City Centre in Miami from Swire Properties. Prior to the acquisition, Simon owned a 25 percent, non-managing interest in the retail at Brickell City Centre. With this latest transaction, Simon wholly owns and manages the asset.
Brickell City Centre.
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Simon adopted an unconventional strategy of buying up failing and bankrupt retailers with significant footprints in his malls to maintain the properties’ high occupancy rates and prevent other retailers from vacating based on lease clauses granting them rights to leave or terminate their ease in the event of certain tenants leaving due to a bankruptcy or for some other reason. Simon’s list of retail deals, which often included partners such as Authentic Brands Group, ran from Aéropostale and JCPenney to Forever 21 and Brooks Brothers. Forever 21 slid into bankruptcy for a second time earlier this year and was liquidated in the U.S.
In another unconventional maneuver to keep his centers appealing with new retail, Simon this year began collaborating with Shopify, the global e-commerce platform, and Leap, a platform for physical retail, to provide brands with the technology and operations they need to open brick-and-mortar locations, in particular e-commerce-only brands or brands with limited experience or resources to deploy physical stores.
By necessity, Simon was among the country’s staunchest advocates of brick and mortar retail, and was ahead of competitors in reinvesting billions of dollars to upgrade his malls. At times, he felt his competitors as well as retailers were failing to sufficiently reinvest in brick and mortar, and instead directed resources on the Internet and technology. In February this year, Simon disclosed what he characterized as a “big program” for redeveloping “B” properties while the company continued its efforts enhancing “A” assets as well.
He did seem to temper his stance on e-commerce in more recent years as the company began developing a deeper omni-channel posture. “The importance of brick-and-mortar has never been higher,” he said during a conference call with industry analysts and investors in February. “Don’t get me wrong, e-commerce is critically important, but all of this stuff about e-commerce, cost of customer acquisition, returns, stickiness, ecetera, it all continues to be a challenge. If you’ve looked at the [pure online] marketplaces, they run into problems, so they really need to be connected to brick-and-mortar for survivability. So all of those things are pointing to a positive picture.”
Last year, the developer revamped its e-commerce website for a much broader selection of sale priced items and renamed it ShopSimon, replacing Shop Premium Outlets. The expanded and rebranded digital marketplace includes on-sale and discounted merchandise, while continuing to offer outlet products from brands. The prior website offered only products from Simon’s network of outlets around the country.
“By seamlessly integrating the ease and portability of online shopping with the appeal of our nationwide network of top tier malls and premium outlets, Simon is creating the standard for a truly integrated omnichannel experience,” Simon said at the time. “Inherent in our culture is a drive for innovation and a desire to enhance the shopping experience for our consumers while delivering new sales opportunities for our retailers. ShopSimon is yet another example of how we are bringing the retail ecosystem together to deliver more of what today’s discerning shopper wants.”
Simon didn’t take criticism lightly. Once, when Mickey Drexler (of Gap, Old Navy and J.Crew fame) at a Financo Forum conference in 2012 accused malls of lacking innovation, having too many kiosks selling inferior product and even in one case, smelling from popcorn, Simon, who was in the audience, shot back, “I’ll take all your space back right now.” Simon, as well as other powerful developers, have been accused of pressuring retailers to sign leases on more locations than they may have wanted to, but that’s something Simon always denied.
The eldest of Simon’s five children, Eli, joined the company in 2019 and has been taking on an ever-larger role. Earlier this year, the 37-year-old oversaw the acquisition of two luxury outlet malls in Europe.
A recent Securities & Exchange Commission filing indicated that the Simon company as of March 31, 2025, owned or held an interest in 194 income-producing properties in the U.S. and Puerto Rico consisting of 92 malls, 70 Premium Outlets, 14 Mills outlets, six lifestyle centers, and 12 other retail assets as well as its 88 percent interest in the Taubman Realty Group, which has an interest in 22 regional, super-regional, and outlet malls in the U.S. and Asia.
Internationally, Simon was listed as owning 38 Premium outlets, designer outlets, and luxury outlet properties primarily in Asia, Europe, and Canada, as well as a 22.4 percent equity stake in Klépierre SA, a publicly-traded, Paris-based real estate company which owns, or has an interest in shopping centers in Europe. In addition, Simon has a stake in Catalyst Brands formed in January 2025 by the merger of JCPenney and SPARC Group. SPARC Group was a joint venture of Authentic, Simon Property and Shein. Simon also has a stake in Rue Gilt Groupe e-commerce, and Jamestown, a global real estate investment and management company.
