David Simon: I’ll let Brian, you can — I hope you can answer all these, I expect you to.
Brian McDade: I can. With respect to TRG, there were two properties. One was a partner buying out our interest. So the property count went down by two in the quarter. With respect to –
David Simon: Well tell them the two.
Brian McDade: Fair Oaks and Country Club are the two assets that are — that the partner is buying us out or bought us out. With respect to capital on the balance sheet, certainly, it’s capital allocation decision relative to stock buyback. But we — with the amount of capital that we are generating both free cash flow and what’s on our balance sheet, it is still an appropriate use of capital throughout the balance of the year and would expect it. We would have interest in buying back our stock at certain levels.
David Simon: Yeah, and I would — I would just add to that, that the ABG sale happened, I don’t remember exactly, but near quarter-end, and we were blacked out from that because of Q1 earnings. So I wouldn’t read that the fact that it’s sitting on the balance sheet to read too much into that.
Haendel St. Juste: Got it. I appreciate that. And the special dividend, anything on that front?
Brian McDade: There is no required special dividend. These were — this interest was owned in our taxable REIT subsidiaries. There will be a tax actual payment due, not actually a special dividend.
Haendel St. Juste: Got it. Got it. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Linda Tsai with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
Linda Tsai: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. A two-parter. I appreciate the fact that you won’t provide capital to Express, but could you just give more color on how you would be providing assistance to the brand?
David Simon: Well, I think, obviously there is a couple of elements. The first — the most important one is that we have the history of running a retailer coming out of bankruptcy. So I think for better or worse, I think it’s better, but others may not agree with me, there’s a certain expertise in doing that and we’ve and I think what our potential partner sees on that is that we can bring to the table. So I wouldn’t underestimate that. That’s one. Number two is, as part of any bankruptcy, we’re going to have a lease negotiation. Some leases will get restructured, some won’t, some will pay what the existing rent is and so on, so — but that happens regardless of whether or not we’re involved or not. So that’s just part of the bankruptcy process.
We go space-by-space and find out — we kind of find out what we’d like to do, maybe short-term leases, so on and so forth. But that — we’re not alone in that, any other landlord will have to come to their own conclusion on what they want to do with if part of rent adjustment is necessary to get the brand on solid financial footing.
Linda Tsai: And do you have any clarity on the store closures at all because one of your much smaller peers expects to close 65% of its stores in 2Q?
David Simon: We are not involved in that process. That’s really management. So I have no point of view or no opinion on that at all. That whole process is part of — we really won’t — we really won’t get involved until we’re approved as the stocking horse bidder. So that — all that’s going on today with the dip and everything else is all part of — it’s all the existing management team. We have no involvement in that whatsoever.
Linda Tsai: Thank you.
David Simon: Sure.
Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Mike Mueller with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.
Simon Hong: Yeah, hey, guys, it’s Hong on for Mike. I guess I was wondering, can you give us an idea of where — of what tank categories you’re seeing most of the demand from in your malls? Is it — I’m just wondering if it’s broad-based and/or how much of it is apparel versus the other categories?
David Simon: Honestly, it’s across the board, restaurants, entertainment, athleisure, sports-related, it’s the Bigger Boxes, the Uniqlos, Primarks of the world, Zara. It is — this is where I give a shout-out to Rick as he used to go through it, but we’re seeing it, Abercrombie, we’re doing a lot of new opportunities with Mango, Golden Goose, just to name a few, Knitwell, JD Sports, Alo, Lululemon is growing with us, upsizing a lot of properties. Our house is a great company that we’re doing business with, Pinstripes, number of restaurants, restaurant tours, it’s very, very, very encouraging because it’s so diverse.
Simon Hong: Got it. If I could sneak one other question, and I guess the$745 square foot sales, is that portfolio weighted or NOI-weighted?
David Simon: Portfolio weighted. I’m sorry just portfolio pure. If it was NOI-weighted, we used to do that, it’s like $950 higher.
Brian McDade: $950 plus or minus.
David Simon: Okay. $950, thereabouts.
Simon Hong: Perfect. Thanks.
David Simon: Sure.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Greg McGinniss with Scotiabank. Please proceed with your questions.
Greg McGinniss: Hey, David. Good afternoon. Just on looking at the volatility of the retail investments, what are the drivers to keep SPARC and J.C. Penney on balance sheet as opposed to the ABG investment? And would you look to sell those in the near future?
