Simon's The Edit Roosevelt Field Launches Revtown USA & B8ta

Retail REIT Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG) is making every effort to drive footfall at its properties. Most recently, the company announced the debut of Revtown USA and b8ta at its turnkey platform for new retail concepts — The Edit Roosevelt Field.

Specifically, a new denim brand, Revtown, was launched online in February 2018 and Simon will launch its first store at the company’s pioneering shopping space at The Edit Roosevelt Field until February 2019. Moreover, b8ta is a tech-enabled store for shoppers to discover, try, and buy innovative new products. Therefore, the debut of both Revtown and b8ta will likely grab attention of the digitally-savvy millennial shopper who value engaging in in-store experiences.

Notably, declining mall traffic resulting from the e-commerce boom, store closures and retailer bankruptcies continue to affect the fundamentals of the retail real estate market, and impact retail REITs, including Simon Property, Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE:KIM) , Macerich Company (NYSE:MAC) and Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO) .

Nonetheless, retail landlords are now making efforts to boost their asset productivity by trying to grab attention from new and productive tenants, and disposing the non-productive ones. Particularly, the retail REITs are avoiding heavy dependence on apparel and accessories, and rather expanding their dining options, opening movie theaters, offering recreational facilities and opening fitness centers in an effort to bring the mojo back.

Simon Property too is investing billions to transform its properties aimed at creating value and drive footfall at the company’s properties. The transformational plans included addition of hotels, restaurants, residences and luxury stores.

Particularly, at Roosevelt Field in Long Island, the company’s The Edit@Roosevelt Field is a retail platform enabling emerging brands to pilot new products in an interactive and experiential retail space. Further, brands, which currently have only an online presence, will set foot in the physical-store space by launching pilot stores in the mall. Such concepts for the retail real estate are aimed at grabbing interest of the tech-savvy population and drive footfalls.

Apart from these, Simon Property is exploring mixed-use development option which has gained immense popularity in recent years. Such developments lower the distance between housing, workplaces, retail businesses, and other amenities and destinations. Hence, such developments enable companies to catch the attention of people who prefer to live, work and play in the same area — a trend that drove development in several other cities in the United States.

Nevertheless, implementation of such measures requires a decent upfront cost and therefore, would limit any robust growth in its near-term profit margin. Also, rate hike has added to its woes.

Simon Property currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The company’s shares have appreciated 6% in the past three months as against its industry’s decline of 11.4%.You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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