Simon Property Group plans to spend $800 million this year to kick off about a half-dozen redevelopment projects from coast to coast as it looks to diversify its retail centers and attract more shoppers.

David Simon, chairman and CEO of the Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust, updated Wall Street on the company's 2024 capital expenditures during a fourth-quarter earnings call Monday. He said that Simon Property, the nation's largest mall landlord, completed 13 "significant" redevelopments last year, and that momentum is carrying into this year.

"We expect to begin construction this year on five to six mixed-use projects representing around $800 million in spend from Orange County to Ann Arbor to Boston, to Seattle to Roosevelt Field," the CEO told analysts. Roosevelt Field is a shopping mall in Garden City, New York, on Long Island.

Those redevelopments will be funded through internally generated cash flow of over $1.5 billion after dividend payments, according to Simon.

The retail REIT, like many of it peers, is transforming its malls to meet new consumer demands and habits, adding new types of uses such as multifamily housing, more restaurants, entertainment venues, fitness facilities, healthcare clinics, hospitality, grocers, and personal grooming salons. In May last year, CEO Simon first discussed the company's plan to build 2,000 multifamily units and hotel rooms at its malls in order to add density and expand some of its retail properties in new ways. In some cases, Simon is opening up the layouts of enclosed malls to add new tenants.

During Monday's conference call, Simon referenced the REIT's poster child for such redevelopments, namely Phipps Plaza in Atlanta. That upscale mall now has a Nobu hotel and restaurant, a Life Time fitness center, and a 340,000-square-foot office building on its site.

Simon said that the redevelopment plans are one of the things the company is most enthused about over the next five years.

"On the property level, there's no question that all of the mixed-use stuff that we're bringing in, plus the redevelopment of our store boxes, are probably the most ... interesting and exciting things that we're doing on the ground," he said.

Asked about the outlook for re-tenanting vacant big-box department stores, such as Sears, Simon said, "The ones that we own we basically don't have a ton of work to do. ... The actual stores that we own are not many, probably under 10 at this point, that are either currently under construction or in process."

That includes at least one former Sears store that Simon tore down and is redeveloping, according to the CEO.

"Transformco still owns some [Sears] boxes — so does Seritage — in our properties," Simon said. "So we'll see how that evolves. Eventually ... those could be opportunities for us to buy and redevelop. We haven't made deals on those just because the ask has been too great."

When Sears began its wind-down, Simon said the market asked how the REIT would survive it.

"The fact of the matter is it was a non-event to the mall customer," the CEO said. "As we've gotten those boxes back, we've made the center better."

Simon boasted strong operating results in the fourth quarter and the full 2023. For the year, the REIT generated record annual funds from operations of nearly $4.7 billion, executed over 18 million square feet of leases, and completed several major financing transactions that reinforced its balance sheet.

Occupancy at its U.S. malls and premium outlets was 95.8% as of Dec. 31, compared to 94.9% at the end of 2022.