The fight for your dollar has the shopping center's scrambling. It's a fight that involves backstabbing, frontstabbing and general stabbing in a winner takes all battle. Taking the biggest cuts is none other than our favorite lifestyle mall developer and maker of fake snow, Rick Caruso. In addition to Caruso's recent tangle with Westfield in Arcadia, there's also lingering bitterness over the Americana at Brand mall, now under construction. Via BusinessWeek:
Caruso, meanwhile, hopes to go to trial early next year in a $100 million antitrust suit he's filed against General Growth Properties (GGP), the nation's second-largest mall owner. Caruso alleges that the Chicago company tried to kill another of his projects in nearby Glendale by telling prospective tenants they wouldn't get space in General Growth malls if they leased with him. "It's just morally wrong," Caruso says. General Growth declined to comment. In the article, General Growth, owner of the Glendale Galleria, is portrayed as evil nasty assholes who will do anything to derail competition. We won't shed a tear for them when the Galleria becomes a parking lot. Serves them right.
· Big Brawls Over Malls [BusinessWeek]