For Mall Giant Macerich, More Turnaround in Q3

Mall owner Macerich’s net operating income (NOI) and revenue were up annually in the third quarter of 2026 behind strong leasing and generally favorable conditions for owners of top-shelf brick-and-mortar retail. 

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based real estate investment trust (REIT), however, recorded a loss attributable to the company of more than $16.73 million for the quarter. 

The uneven performance was not that unusual for Macerich, which has spent the last 24 months in turnaround mode following several years of annual losses. It’s what Jackson Hsieh, the REIT’s CEO since early 2024, calls its “Path Forward Plan.” 

It would appear from the third-quarter numbers released late Wednesday that the turnaround is at full steam. For instance, that $16.73 million net loss was much lower than the more than $87 million absorbed in the third quarter of 2025. 

Total revenue was $260.06 million for the quarter, up from $253.26 million in the third quarter of 2025. Total net operating income in the third quarter was $209.83 million, up from $209.01 million a year ago. Macerich breaks out NOI, too, for what it calls its Go Forward portfolio of premier malls. That Go Forward NOI totaled $192.99 million in the third quarter, a 4.7 percent gain on last year’s $184.35 million. 

Macerich’s funds from operations (FFO) — a REIT proxy for cash flow — was $109.1 million for the quarter, up from $96.2 million last year. 

The REIT ended the quarter with leased occupancy for its approximately 39 million-square-foot, 37-asset portfolio at 94.9 percent, a 1.5 percent increase compared with the same time in 2025. Occupancy in its Go Forward portfolio — concentrated in California, the Pacific Northwest, the Phoenix, D.C. and New York areas, and, as of 2025, North Carolina — was at more than 96 percent.

Macerich secured approximately 1.2 million square feet of leases during the third quarter, and recorded a 16.9 percent annual increase in the square footage taken by new tenants. Driving home the turnaround theme even more, the company said it expects these new store leases to generate around $131 million more in total gross revenue than generated in 2024 from prior uses.

The REIT also emphasized its continued disposition strategy as it homes in that Go Forward portfolio and jettisons other assets. That included the $69.7 million sale of the Pacific View Mall in Ventura, Calif., in September. And the REIT hinted at “a mall acquisition” that was under contract that should close by the end of the year. The company declined to provide details. 

The multipronged approach to paring losses and gaining revenue took center stage during Wednesday’s earnings call. 

“Importantly, we are not reliant on a single growth lever,” Hsieh said.

Better yet for a mall owner in turnaround mode, Doug Healey, Macerich’s senior executive vice president of leasing, could point on the call to a rosy holiday shopping forecast from the National Retail Federation. The trade group in October predicted that Americans’ holiday spending this year would crack $1 trillion for the first time ever. 

Tom Acitelli can be reached at tacitelli@commercialobserver.com.