Simon Property (SPG) Unveils Mix-Use Project At Clearfolk

Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG) announced the opening of an upscale mix-use development at Clearfork — The Shops — in alliance with Cassco Development Co.

The 500,000-square-foot development offers retail, office, dining and entertainment space and is centrally located in Fort Worth. The office space spanning 120,000 square feet is situated above the retail space in the ground floor.

The Shops, located at Edwards Ranch, is well connected to major roadways. Moreover, the Central Business District, Texas Christian University and the Fort Worth Cultural District are easily accessible from this multi-purpose destination.

Due to its sound connectivity, The Shops is emerging as an important business hub in Fort Worth. WeWork, Mustang Energy and Merrill Lynch are some companies slated to open offices in Clearfork.

With Neiman Marcus as the anchor tenant, The Shops has a wide range of home, luxury, furnishing and retail outlets, including Louis Vuitton, Arhaus, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX). A number of other preeminent brands are likely to open outlets by this fall. This multi-purpose destination will also offer a plethora of regional and national dining options from the next week.

The Clearfork development is a 270-acre multi-use project which will provide 1.2 million square feet of retail space, 2 million square feet of office space and 2,500 multi-family residential units.

Simon Property is a leading retail real estate investment trust (REIT), with retail assets in upscale markets across the United States. With The Shops, the company continues to offer top-class destinations and unique experiences to its customers.

Nevertheless, increasing online purchases have emerged as a pressing concern for retail REITs. Simon Property has been striving to counter this pressure by focusing on omni-channel retailing and other such initiatives. However, it may take a while for these efforts to offset the challenges that are currently plaguing the company.

Year to date, shares of Simon have underperformed the industry. While this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has declined 7.8%, the industry incurred a loss of 3.9% during this period.


Stocks to Consider

Better-ranked stocks in the REIT space include Getty Realty Corporation (NYSE:GTY) , Seritage Growth Properties (NYSE:SRG) and Communications Sales & Leasing, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) . While Getty Realty flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Seritage and Communications Sales & Leasing carry a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Getty Realty’s funds from operation (FFO) per share estimates for 2017 moved up 3.1% to $2 in a month’s time.

Seritage’s FFO per share estimates for 2017 inched up 0.5% to $2.01 over the past 60 days.

Communications Sales & Leasing’s 2017 FFO per share estimates climbed 14.4% to $2.54 over the same time period.

Note: All EPS numbers presented in this write up represent funds from operations (“FFO”) per share. FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.

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Simon Property Group, Inc. (SPG): Free Stock Analysis Report

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