Giant retail landlord Simon Property Group's $4 billion redevelopment pipeline includes adding more office space to one of its retail centers in Texas, with a tenant described as "Wells" slated to join other banks at the upscale mixed-use complex.
Indianapolis-based Simon, the nation's largest mall owner, didn't elaborate on whether "Wells" is in fact San Francisco-based financial services giant Well Fargo. The bank is building a $455 million corporate campus in Irving, Texas, near Dallas.
Simon will be making the changes at The Shops at Clearfork, a 556,23-square-foot center in Fort Worth that it owns with locally based partner Cassco Development.
Simon Property has approved a deal with Cassco "to build an office and retail on the ground floor" at Clearfork, David Simon, chairman and CEO of the retail real estate investment trust, or REIT, said during a third-quarter earnings call. The plan was so nascent that the executive said he didn't even think it was mentioned in the 8-K form that the REIT recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
That office space, at about 50,000 square feet, isn't big, "and Wells is going to take the majority of it," according to Simon, who didn't elaborate.
Simon Property didn't offer more details on the plans for Clearfork, which is anchored by a Neiman Marcus store, on its conference call. The REIT and Cassco didn't respond to emails from CoStar News seeking comment. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo declined to comment.
New classes of tenants
Simon officials discussed their redevelopment plans Friday. The company is among the U.S. retail landlords that are actively redeveloping their retail properties as well as replacing traditional anchors — bringing on new types of tenants — to drive foot traffic.
That has meant adding entertainment areas, hotels, gyms, personal care spaces, healthcare facilities, housing and office space to malls and shopping centers.
A prime example for Simon is its reimagining of Phipps Plaza mall in Atlanta. The REIT added a Life Time fitness club, a Nobu hotel and restaurant, and a 13-story, 340,000-square-foot office building to that mall site.
If "Wells" is in fact the bank, Clearfork wouldn't mark the first time the firm took office space near high-end retail. Roughly a year ago, it paid about $550 million to acquire what was formerly a Neiman Marcus store at 20 Hudson Yards in New York, which includes upscale retailers and restaurants.
Clearfork already has some office-retail buildings, with Frost Bank and WeWork among their tenants.
Big pipeline
Simon Property's construction pipeline is about $4 billion, with over $1 billion of that for residential development, according to Simon, the chief executive.
"That doesn't mean we're going to do all of it, but, you know, we have massive mixed opportunities ahead of us," he said.
As for developing office space like that planned in Clearfork, "we'll still do smatterings of those kind of projects as we as we go forward. But building a big [speculative] office is out of our pipeline," he added.
Clearfork's tenants include Tiffany & Co., Gucci, and Tumi.
CoStar News reporter Candace Carlisle contributed to this story.