Mills Corporation

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Mills Corporation

Type	Defunct
Founded	1985-2007
Headquarters	Chevy Chase, Maryland
Industry	Real estate
Products	Shopping malls
Website	www.themills.com

The Mills Corporation was a publicly traded real estate investment trust headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, United States, acquired on April 3, 2007 by an investment group comprised of Simon Property Group and Farallon Capital Management. The company developed, owned, and operated major super-regional shopping malls. The company built 18 "Landmark" centers in which the malls were named after "Mills", like "Franklin Mills," or "St. Louis Mills". Also, over 20 "21st Century Retail" regional malls that they started operating in 2002, like Del Amo Fashion Center and Southdale Center. Simon Property Group assumed management of the former Mills properties after the acquisition, and is operating the former "Landmark Mills" group as a separate operating segment within its organization.

The Mills also developed St. Enoch Centre in Scotland, Madrid Xanadú in Spain, and Vaughan Mills outside Toronto, Canada as "International" Properties.

The company started in 1985 as the Western Development Company, and its first mall was Potomac Mills in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The company had its IPO in 1994. ^[1] ^[2]

Most former Mills facilities have a large movie theater from 10-30 screens, and a large food court (sometimes two). Their facilities are normally built in modern/abstract architectural designs.

1 Acquisition by Simon Property Group
2 Former Mills properties
- 2.1 Properties sold by Mills prior to Simon acquisition
3 Under development
- 3.1 United States
- 3.2 Italy
4 References
5 External links

On January 17, 2007, the Mills Corporation agreed to a buyout from Brookfield Asset Management, based out of Toronto. The deal was valued at US$1.35 billion. The company was forced to seek help after a possible management misconduct resulted in a $350 million accounting error. Brookfield will pay $21 for each share of Mills Corporation.^[3] On February 13, 2007, Mills announced ^[4] that their board has determined that a competing offer from Simon Property Group of Indianapolis, Indiana was superior to the Brookfield offer. Brookfield had the option to submit a counter offer, but February 16, 2007, Simon Property Group and Farallon Capital agreed to acquire Mills for $25.25 per common share.

On April 6, 2007, Farallon and Simon completed the acquisition of Mills. All former Mills malls at the acquisition date, are now Simon properties and are shown on its website. It became Simon's 5th retail platform along with Regional Malls (the 21st Century malls included) and Chelsea Preium Outlets. The new Platform (for Landmarks only) is known as "The Mills: A Simon Company"

Arizona Mills - Tempe (Phoenix), Arizona
Arundel Mills - Hanover (Baltimore), Maryland
The Block at Orange - Orange, California (Anaheim, Los Angeles)
Briarwood Mall - Ann Arbor, Michigan
Broward Mall - Plantation, Florida
Cincinnati Mills - Cincinnati, Ohio (formerly Forest Fair Mall)
Colorado Mills - Lakewood (Denver), Colorado
Concord Mills - Concord (Charlotte), North Carolina
Colonnade Outlets at Sawgrass - Sunrise (Fort Lauderdale), Florida
Columbus City Center - Downtown Columbus, Ohio
Del Amo Fashion Center - Torrance (Los Angeles), California
Discover Mills - Lawrenceville (Atlanta), Georgia

Note: This is the first known instance of a developer selling naming rights to a mall in the United States.^[5]^[6]

Dover Mall - Dover, Delaware
The Esplanade - Kenner (New Orleans), Louisiana
The Falls - Miami, Florida
Franklin Mills - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Galleria at White Plains - White Plains (New York City), New York
Grapevine Mills - Grapevine (Dallas), Texas
Great Mall of the Bay Area - Milpitas (San Jose), California
Gurnee Mills - Gurnee (Chicago), Illinois
Hilltop Mall - Richmond, California
Katy Mills - Katy (Houston), Texas
Lakeforest Mall - Gaithersburg, Maryland (Washington, D.C.)
The Mall at Tuttle Crossing - Dublin, Ohio (Columbus, Ohio)
Marley Station - Glen Burnie (Baltimore), Maryland
Meadowood Mall - Reno, Nevada
Northpark Mall - Ridgeland, Mississippi(Jackson, MS metro area)
Ontario Mills - Ontario, California (Los Angeles)
Opry Mills -Nashville, Tennessee
Potomac Mills - Woodbridge, Virginia (Washington, D.C.)
Sawgrass Mills - Sunrise, Florida (Fort Lauderdale)
The Shops at Riverside - Bergen, New Jersey
Southdale Center - Edina (Minneapolis), Minnesota
Southridge Mall - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Stoneridge Mall - Pleasanton, California
St. Louis Mills - Hazelwood (St. Louis), Missouri
Westland Mall - Hialeah (Miami), Florida

Madrid Xanadu - near a reiterated recommendation from the Third Evaluation Round, 2003–2004built in 2003 by Mills, sold to Ivanhoe Cambridge in 2006.
St. Enoch Centre - Glasgow, Scotland, acquired in January 2005.
Vaughan Mills - (Toronto, Ontario) Built in 2004 and the first Mills property outside the U.S.; Mills sold its share in July 2006 to Zamias Services.
Pittsburgh Mills - Tarentum (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania Built in 2005, was the first Mills landmark to feature full priced stores; Mills sold its share in mall in December 2006.