three malls — two in Florida and one in Utah.
Chattanooga, Tennessee-based CBL Properties,
which owns and manages 108 properties, said
it will be announcing its reopening plans on a
property-by-property basis.
Even before the cornonavirus pandemic, malls
were grappling with a shift to online retail
as well as shoppers who’d grown bored of
department stores and specialty chains like The
Gap. That resulted in a number of bankruptcies
and liquidations of stores.
The coronavirus has brought further peril by
derailing consumer spending and scaring off
public gatherings.
Jan Rogers Kniffen, a consultant to investors in
retail companies and a former retail executive,
now expects that 500 of the 1,000 malls in the
U.S. will either close or be unrecognizable in two
years. Before the pandemic, he expected 300 to
shutter by 2030.
The imminent demise of several key tenants
could also leave shoppers with fewer places to
spend. J.Crew, saddled by debt, filed for Chapter
11 on Monday, becoming the first major retailer
to do so. J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus are
also expected to file for Chapter 11.
And Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette told analysts that
it would emerge from this crisis as a “smaller
company.” That’s bad news because 60% of U.S.
malls are still anchored by department stores,
according to research firm Green Street Advisors.
Macy’s reopened nearly 70 stores Monday, with
many just focusing only on curbside pickup.
Gennette said he expects less than 20% of the
business to come back at first. And shoppersImage: LM Otero