Simon Boosts Portfolio With Brickell City Centre's Retail Arm Buyout

Simon Property Group SPG recently announced that it has purchased Swire Properties’ stake in Brickell City Centre’s open-air shopping center and will now wholly own and manage the asset. Earlier, SPG held a 25% non-managing interest in the retail at the property. The move will boost Simon’s portfolio, aiding leasing and future revenue growth and creating shareholder value.

A mixed-use destination, Brickell City Centre spans five million square feet and is well-recognized for its architectural sophistication. It features a 500,000-square-foot open-air shopping center completed in 2016.

Located in the heart of the Brickell district of downtown Miami, the shopping center is anchored by a Saks Fifth Avenue with a Casa Tua Cucina location. The property comprises four levels of dining and entertainment interconnected across three city blocks. With more than 90 retail stores, including the likes of Apple, Zara, and Coach and more than 15 premium dining and entertainment locations, the center will act as a major footfall driver for SPG.

Simon Property in a Nutshell

Simon Property owns a diversified portfolio of premium retail assets in some of the key markets across the United States and globally. For the past several years, the company has been investing billions to transform its properties and is focused on creating value and driving footfall at the properties.

The company has been restructuring its portfolio, aiming at premium acquisitions and transformative redevelopments. In January 2025, Simon Property announced that it had taken over 100% of The Mall Luxury Outlets entities from Kering. In February 2025, Simon Property announced that it would launch a multimillion-dollar redevelopment at Smith Haven Mall, which it plans to begin this summer and complete in 2026.

However, growing e-commerce adoption and high debt burden raise concerns for Simon. Moreover, macroeconomic uncertainty can result in strain on retailers' balance sheets, leading to bankruptcies.

In the past three months, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have lost 3.4% compared to the industry’s decline of 3.1%. Analysts seem bearish on the stock, with its 2025 funds from operations (FFO) per share revised marginally southward to $12.45 over the past month.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are VICI Properties VICI and W.P. Carey WPC, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for VICI’s 2025 FFO per share is pegged at $2.35, implying year-over-year growth of 4%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WPC’s 2025 FFO per share is pegged at $4.88, indicating an increase of 3.8% from the year-ago reported figure.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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