What: The CEO of Simon Property Group held court on a conference call with analysts after turning in stronger second-quarter results.

Why is it important: In the company’s U.S. malls and premium outlets, occupancy stood at 91.8% at the end of the quarter, down from 94.4% two years earlier.

“We continue to see demand for space across our portfolio from healthy local, regional and national tenants, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs — and mixed-use demand [is] ever so increasing day by day,” Simon said. “Physical retail is here to stay. And people really like to shop in the physical world.”

“We still have a hole to dig out of because of the bankruptcies that we had to confront with the pandemic,” he said. “But I’m very pleased with the activity, the mojo that we have in leasing, the work that our personnel are doing there, the creativity. It’s pretty encouraging.”

So far this year, the company has signed leases for 3 million more square feet of space — more than 800 more deals compared with the first six months of 2019. And retail sales for June were on par with June 2019 and up 5% from May.

For the three months ended June 30, the group’s net income increased to USD 617.3 million from USD 254.2 million a year earlier. Funds from operations — the standard yardstick for real estate firms — rose to USD 1.2 billion from USD 746.5 million a year earlier.

Mall Giant David Simon ‘Physical Retail Is Here to Stay’