New Mall Development Becomes Brutal

Faced with stiff competition, mall companies are using the legal process to thwart one another's development plans. These NAMIMBY's (Not A Mall In My Back Yard) are now funding mall competitors to litigate and delay or prevent a competitor's plans for a new mall. "[T]he mall game is changing quickly these days as the nation gets increasingly malled up. The U.S. now has about 1,800 malls, which industry watchers say is about a third too many. The number of markets that can support more malls is shrinking rapidly... As a result, mall developers, mostly led by a handful of families -- including the Simons, Taubmans, Ratners, and Bucksbaums -- have gotten into more frequent and nastier clashes over increasingly marginal markets." Editor's note: The Wall Street Journal may require a subscription to read the full text of this story.