The Mills Corporation (stylized as THE MILLS) was a publicly-traded real estate investment trust headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, that developed and operated super-regional shopping malls. Mills-developed malls were typically built as large, single-floor facilities with a mixture of off-price retail and entertainment offerings. The company also had a sizeable portfolio of acquired properties, which tended to be smaller in scale.
On April 3, 2007, following financial difficulties, the company was acquired by an investment group composed of Simon Property Group and Farallon Capital Management. At the time of the acquisition, the company operated 36 malls across the United States, 15 of which it had developed. Simon assumed management of the former Mills properties after the acquisition.
The company started in 1967 as the Western Development Corporation, founded by Herbert S. Miller, who thought that malls should be tourist attractions with entertainment and high-energy themes, not just places to shop. His first mall was Potomac Mills in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which opened in September 1985. Then from 1989 to 1991, Franklin, Sawgrass, and Gurnee Mills opened each of those years, respectively. In 1994, the company converted to Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) status and changed its name to "The Mills Corporation".
In 1996, with new CEO Lawrence Siegel, The Mills built Ontario Mills near Los Angeles, which was the company's first mall built abstractly and with a full oval racetrack design which followed into the rest of the company's built malls. Since opening Ontario Mills until July 2005 with Pittsburgh Mills, The Mills built and opened at least one or two landmark malls each year. After that, Mills developed Arundel, Grapevine, Arizona, Concord, and Katy Mills.
In 2001, The Mills sold naming rights to its planned "Sugarloaf Mills" mall in Metro Atlanta to Discover Card; the mall opened in 2001 as Discover Mills. This was the first instance of a mall selling its own naming rights.
In 2002, The Mills acquired six regular retail malls including the failing Forest Fair Mall (became Cincinnati Mills from 2004 to 2009) and a nine mall portfolio in 2004, including former Taubman Centers, like Columbus City Center in order to redevelop and expanded to be more affordable centers. The company also expanded to Europe with the opening of Madrid Xanadú in Spain.
The success of Madrid Xanadú prompted The Mills to embark on the $1 billion+ Meadowlands Xanadú complex in 2004, which was first planned as "Meadowlands Mills", but the project has caused numerous delays and cost the company financially. It was eventually sold to Canadian-based dev Triple Five Group, which opened it in 2020 as American Dream.
In November 2004, Vaughan Mills was the first Landmark Mills mall built in Canada, and continued its international success with the acquisition of the St. Enoch Centre in Scotland and was offered to build a center in Rome, Italy (which was eventually never developed).
After their last built mall was opened, Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills in July 2005, the company was investigated by the Securities & Exchange Commission for its financial problems.
On January 17, 2007, the Mills Corporation agreed to a buyout from Brookfield Asset Management, based out of Toronto. The deal was valued at US$1.35 billion. The company was forced to seek help after a possible management misconduct resulted in a $350 million accounting error. Brookfield would have paid $21 for each share of Mills Corporation. However, on February 13, 2007, Mills announced that their board had determined that a competing offer from Simon Property Group of Indianapolis, Indiana was superior to the Brookfield offer. Brookfield had the option to submit a counter offer, but on February 16, 2007, Simon Property Group and Farallon Capital agreed to acquire Mills for $25.25 per common share.
The acquisition was completed in April 2007, and all former Mills malls became Simon properties at the acquisition date and are now shown on Simon's website. The Mills became Simon's fifth retail platform, along with Regional Malls (the 21st Century malls included) and Chelsea Premium Outlets. The new platform (for Landmark Mills only) is known as The Mills: A Simon Company.
The Mills Corporation frequently partnered with German-based investment firm KanAm Grund Group, which helped fund and develop multiple Mills malls. Through funds like KanAm USA XX and XXI, they held stakes in major U.S. malls, including Arundel Mills, Concord Mills, Colorado Mills, and Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills.
After Simon acquired The Mills Corp., they later attempted to acquire KanAm's shares in the Mills portfolio. However, the Joint Venture Agreements contract stated that to acquire KanAm, they had to be paid in "Mills Units". When Simon acquired Mills, those specific units technically went defunct. KanAm sued Simon for this, arguing that the attempted buyout was a breach of contract, and while Simon responded by offering KanAm "Simon Units" as an alternative, KanAm insisted on the Mills Units, and in March 2017, the lawsuit was settled by the Delaware Court of Chancery, which sided with KanAm and argued that because Simon phased out the Mills Units, they are permanently barred from buying out KanAm's shares in the Mills portfolio.
Because of this, KanAm continues to hold shares in the following Mills malls. The percentage next to the mall names is the amount of shares they own.
Properties marked with an asterisk (*) were sold prior to The Mills' acquisition by Simon Property Group. The years next to the mall names are their opening date.