The developers buying the struggling Palm Beach Mall are envisioning a high-end fashion outlet center in the property’s future. According to the Palm Beach Post, the joint venture of New England Development and Eastern Real Estate has unveiled its plans for the 1 million-square-foot Palm Beach Fashion Outlets, which would open in 2013. The marketing materials and rendering of the property include department store outlets like Nordstrom Rack, Bloomingdale’s Outlet Store and Neiman Marcus’ Last Call, as well as outlets for the Gap, Old Navy, Ralph Lauren and Nike. In addition, TJ Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond and the Burlington Coat Factory are also listed. [more]

U.S. real estate investment trusts paid out a whopping $192.3 million to the top 20 highest-paid CEOs in the industry last year, for an average of $9.6 million per executive, according to SNL Financial. That’s up from $104.7 million, or $5.2 million per CEO, in 2009.

While it’s true that REITs did well last year, CEO compensation far outpaced their companies’ performance — across the REIT sector, shareholders saw a return of 28.9 percent; the top 20 highest-paid REIT CEOs saw an average 83.6 percent pay increase.

Marc Holliday, CEO of New York-based SL Green Realty Trust, took home $24.8 million last year, making him the highest-paid REIT executive in the country and marking a 117.6 percent increase over his compensation during the year prior.

Holliday didn’t get the largest raise, though. That award went to David Simon, chairman and CEO of shopping mall REIT Simon Property Group, who took home a total of $24.6 million in 2010, up 430 percent over the $4.6 million he made in 2009. [more]

Simon Property Group has snagged four new tenants for its Dadeland Mall, all of which are slated to open this summer. The new retailers are Henri Bendel, Pandora, BSA Hair Salon and BSA Nail Spa. The mall, at 7535 N. Kendall Drive in Miami, is anchored by Macy’s, JCPenney, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom and has upwards of 185 stores. Both a Lacoste and an expanded TOUS space recently opened there as well. [SFBJ]

Retail real estate investment trusts will drop up to five cents a share in the first quarter, thanks mostly to retailer bankruptices, according to a Jefferies & Co. analysis cited by Crain’s. Shopping center vacancies are expected to rise to 11.1 percent this year, the highest mark in two decades, and liquidations of retailers like Borders and closings of Harry & David and AnchorBlue are adding to shopping center woes. The safest bets, according to the analysis, are upscale malls like those owned by Simon Property Group and Taubman Centers. [Crain's]

South Miami’s Shops at Sunset Place has debuted as the first U.S. home of Latin American affordable home furnishings company CasaIdeas. The 19-year-old retailer, which boasts 500 new products per week and has locations in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Colombia, joins Banana Republic, Armani Exchange, Gameworks and an AMC movie theater at the open-air Simon Property Group mall. The entertainment and retail property, at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Red Road, is also home to Dan Marino’s and Splitsville Luxury Lanes and Dinner Lounge. [SFBJ]

Still hoping that bankrupt mall owner General Growth Properties will have a change of heart, rival Simon Property Group has upped its takeover plan by $1.1 billion and added four financial backers to its proposal. General Growth, which balked at Simon’s $10 billion February buyout offer, has since backed a proposal by Brookfield Asset Management. The additional investment by Simon, which said last week it would match the terms of Brookfield’s proposal, comes on top of the $2.5 billion the company has already pledged, plus $1 billion from New York hedge fund Paulson & Co. ING Clarion Real Estate Securities, Taconic Capital Advisors, Oak Hill Advisors and Deutsche Bank AG’s RREEF unit will also join the plan. Critics have said a Simon takeover would raise antitrust issues. “Would Pepsi allow Coke to become its largest shareholder?” asked Cryus Madon, Brookfield’s senior managing partner. CEO David Simon is reportedly scheduled to meet with General Growth officials today in Chicago. [Bloomberg]

Simon Property Group topped the list of the biggest retail property owners with total U.S. holdings at 245 million square feet, according to a ranking by Retail Traffic Magazine. General Growth Properties, the owner of South Street Seaport in New York City and Mizner Park in Boca Raton, which has been fielding reorganization options to exit bankruptcy, ranked second with approximately 182.6 million square feet of retail space in its portfolio. Developers Diversified Realty, Kimco Realty and Centro Properties Group were the fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. TRD

As Simon Property Group prepares to step up its game in its bid to take over bankrupt mall owner General Growth Properties, Brookfield Asset Management is in talks to bring two new hedge funds into its competing plan. Elliott Associates and Paulson & Co. are reportedly in talks to join Brookfield in its bankruptcy exit plan for General Growth, either as replacements for or additions to Fairholme Capital Management and Pershing Square Capital Management, which have already committed to their involvement. Luxor Capital Group and other funds may also be involved, sources told Bloomberg. “Even with Brookfield-Fairholme-Pershing’s commitment, [General Growth] management has been seeking to raise additional capital at more attractive terms,” said analyst Benjamin Yang of Keefe Bruyette & Woods, who was not surprised by reports of the latest negotiations. General Growth, which owns Mizner Park in Boca Raton, rejected a $10 million buyout offer by competitor Simon Property Group last month that amounted to $9 per share, and Simon is said to be prepping another offer. As it stands, the Brookfield deal, which is pending bankruptcy court approval, would result in $15 per share for equity holders. [Bloomberg]

Simon Property Group is reportedly ready to up the ante in its bid to buy out rival shopping mall owner General Growth Properties over its competitors. General Growth, which owns Mizner Park in Boca Raton, filed for the biggest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history last year with $27 billion in debt. Simon had offered
$10 billion, or $9 per share, to buy out its bankrupt rival last month, but General Growth reportedly balked at what it said was a low-ball offer. Meanwhile, General Growth has praised another $2.5 billion offer from Brookfield Asset Management
that amounts to $15 per share. The deal, which is pending bankruptcy court approval, would also split the company in two and give Brookfield a 30 percent stake. Simon’s new offer for more than $15 per share could come as early as this week, the Associated Press reported. [AP via Crain’s]

Allen Levine, an attorney at Becker & Poliakoff, who represented the Coconut Point developers in Van Hook v. the Residences at Coconut Point

A federal appellate court decision last month has strengthened the hand of developers as they fight thousands of lawsuits across the country from condominium unit buyers trying to get out of contracts signed during the boom.
A December analysis by The Real Deal showed that hundreds of buyers in New York were trying to use a federal disclosure law called the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, or ILSA, to renege on their contracts. New York saw its first ILSA ruling in decades when a federal judge ruled in January that the developers of the Harlem condo Fifth on the Park were exempt from the ILSA statute, thereby rejecting two buyers’ efforts to break their contracts and get their deposits back. The buyers said they planned to appeal that decision.
Just days after the New York ruling, the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit sided with the developer in another ILSA case in Bonita Springs, Florida. That Feb. 3 ruling doesn’t bind other federal jurisdictions, but it sets a precedent other federal courts are likely to follow, experts said. It’s the second ILSA ruling the same appellate court has made in the last six months siding with the developers . [more]