America’s Top Redevelopers

Ground-up developments have all but come to a screeching halt, compliments of a nasty economic downturn. Redevelopment, on the other hand, has emerged as the new black, with shopping center owners pouring their efforts—and their resources—into maximizing existing assets.

So it wasn’t a huge surprise that the response to this year’s “Top Redevelopers” survey—which measured 2008 redeveloped square footage (including renovated and expanded space), investment figures as available and total number of projects completed by year’s end—was particularly hearty.

In our fifth annual ranking of the country’s top redevelopers,Chain Store Age once again tried to make the selection process as objective as possible. It was not easy. As has been the case over the last four years, not enough information is available to formulate a totally foolproof ranking system. Only a handful of developers report financial investments in redeveloped projects, and many tally redevelopment square footage in differing ways.

To be fair, we have listed our top 10 in alphabetical order, sending a message to the retail community that these developers share an active, and admirable, commitment to redevelopment—and no one company can really be objectively ranked higher than the next.

Editor’s note: For the first time, we have added two “honorable mentions,” based solely on the significance of the restored projects. Both are described on the next page.