Continuing the Momentum in 2011

Moving into 2011, our message remains the same: We intend to build on the success and momentum of 2010 and move ever closer to our vision of being the premier owner and manager of high-quality shopping centers. Not surprisingly, our business priorities are essentially the same as last year, even as we remain vigilant, responsive and flexible to meet ever-changing economic, operating and financing conditions.

A shopping center portfolio well-located in strong markets and occupied by solid, credit-worthy tenants can serve as a stable source of cash flow, regardless of the gyrations of the market and the business cycle. Those same shopping centers also can grow operating cash flows and create value through rising rents, while offering the opportunity for repositioning and remerchandising for even more value. The equation of stability + growth is our focus, and our business strategy and tactics are geared to delivering on those twin objectives.

Asset-Level Execution

Our shopping center assets are the core of our business and our operating teams are singularly focused on extracting maximum value and increasing cash flow from them. The key to our success is our tenants’ success: by creating the right shopping environments to drive customer traffic to our centers, we provide greater opportunity for our more than 7,000 tenants to thrive. To accomplish that, our key objectives are:

• continued improvement in occupancy rates by releasing space, recapturing lost rents, and aggressively focusing on retaining in-place tenants;
• the pursuit of selected expansion, redevelopment and increased density; and
• proactive property management and the growth of alternative and ancillary income programs.

Knowledge of retailer strategies and space needs is critical to our leasing strategy, and understanding the store performance and operating issues of our existing tenants is key to our efforts to retain them. Our daily interaction with tenants is supplemented by both a national portfolio review process, as well as frequent regional reviews. In our national program, we conduct well
over 100 reviews with existing and prospective tenants each year. These reviews provide our leasing and asset management teams with critical leads and opportunities to improve occupancy, increase retention rates, and creatively address retailer issues.