David Simon, Who Built The World's Largest Retail Owner, Dies At 64
David Simon, CEO and chairman of the board at mall REIT Simon Property Group, died Sunday after a battle with cancer, the company announced Monday.
The 64-year-old spent more than 30 years at the top of Simon Property Group, orchestrating the company’s 1993 initial public offering and guiding the mall owner through the disruption from e-commerce and the coronavirus pandemic to be the leading retail operator in the country with a roughly $60B public valuation.
His son Eli Simon, who was promoted to chief operating officer in August, has been appointed as Simon’s new CEO by the REIT’s board of directors and will hold both roles.
"On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, we extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the Simon family,” Larry Glasscock, who was appointed as nonexecutive chairman of the board to replace David Simon, said in a statement. “We are profoundly grateful for the privilege of having served alongside David, and we pledge to honor his extraordinary legacy by continuing to uphold the principles of excellence he embodied every single day."
Glasscock has been on the Simon board since 2010 and is the former chairman of Anthem and WellPoint, the healthcare firms now collectively known as Elevance Health, and Sprint.
David Simon joined Simon Property Group as chief financial officer in 1990 when it was Melvin Simon & Associates and became CEO in 1995. He expanded the REIT through the acquisitions of other operators including DeBartolo Realty Corp., Corporate Property Investors, Chelsea Property Group and the Mills Corp. to create a retail behemoth. Today, Simon’s global portfolio has 350 properties spanning 200M SF.
Most recently, Simon completed the acquisition of upscale mall operator Taubman Realty Group by purchasing the 5 million shares the REIT didn’t already own. That purchase followed a $2.7B investment to buy 80% of the firm in December 2020, a discount from the $3.6B Simon offered before the pandemic upended consumer trends.
The REIT described David Simon as a once-in-a-generation leader whose “genius lay not only in assembling assets, but in elevating them.” The mall operator has for years invested heavily in positioning its properties, most recently committing $250M on three mall upgrades.
The landlord has also proactively worked with its tenants as the retail landscape has shifted, providing cash infusions to some struggling brands like Forever 21 and Brooks Brothers through its stake in brand management firm Authentic Brands Group, which the REIT sold in May 2024 for $1.5B.
“David Simon was, quite simply, the finest leader in the history of the retail real estate industry,” Glasscock said. “His extraordinary intellect, his relentless drive for excellence, and his unmatched strategic vision transformed a privately held family business into an esteemed global institution — creating billions of dollars in value for shareholders along the way.”
