Amazon is in talks with mall owner Simon Property Group to put Amazon fulfillment centers in empty anchor store spaces vacated by major tenants like Sears and JCPenney, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
The talks have been ongoing for months, the sources said.
There are currently 63 JCPenney and 11 Sears stores in Simon Malls., per the WSJ.
As of May 2020, J.C. Penney occupied 6% of U.S. malls per data from CoStar, the second-largest tenant after Macy’s at 6.2%. Sears was fifth at 1.7%. Simon and Amazon also have explored buying mall space back directly from the retailers, per the WSJ.
Simon is also looking at buying JC Penney and several other chains that are in their Malls now. This may cost several billion, but Simon has over 8 billion liquidity. Simon has or manages around 200 properties.
