David Simon: Well, we don’t have — I mean, thank you for the question, Alex. We’re not that far away. You always say out here, we’re really not that far away. But put that aside, it’s not a question of leverage over the retailers. I think what we have going for us is a great diverse portfolio. It’s the best in the industry from mills to our outlets to our full price malls. And that’s unique, its size, its scale, its quality that we’ve built up over many, many years. And as you remember, I don’t think it was last quarter, maybe it was, Tom, but when we went through the transformation of the portfolio, was it last quarter? So we’ve done a lot to try to improve the quality of the portfolio. And I would say that obviously there’s not a lot of new retail being built.
There’s not a lot of retailers closing stores and — or going bankrupt. And I think most retailers today know kind of the good malls and the good properties versus the not so good. And when you add that up, supply and demand is in our favor and we’re generating market rents. It’s neither here nor there. But importantly, and I think I’d like to address this with you is that, and again, I’m sure retailers have different point of view, but I think the most interesting fact, or the most interesting thing that we have going for us in addition to the quality, diversity, et cetera, that I mentioned, they know we’re going to be around. So — and they know that we’ll stick to a deal, we’ll make it happen. When we say we’re going to redevelop something, we do it.
And I think that when there are open to buys, we tend to get our fair share of those or more than because of some of the factors that I mentioned, quality, scale, but also the fact that they know we’re going to get the job done. And obviously there’s been a lot of changes in mall ownership over the years. Balance sheet and quality of operations is a two-way street. It’s both. As we look at retailers, we assess that. They certainly assess us. And I think that gives us an advantage that we’ve worked very hard, as you know, to achieve and, I mean, how do I say this? I mean, we’ve really outpaced our peer group dramatically in any measure you want, growth, earnings, dividend, quality of operations, scale, balance sheet, the — I know we all focus quarter to quarter and this and that, but if you take a step back and you go, what do you got going for you?
And again, we don’t — this sounds a little braggadocious. I don’t want it to, but I mean, we’ve really outpaced, if you look over the last 10 — 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years, you know, we’ve dramatically outpaced our peer group.
Alexander Goldfarb: Thank you.
David Simon: Thank you. No follow-up. I stumped you. I love it.
Operator: Our next question is from Jeff Spector with Bank of America. Please proceed.
Jeff Spector: Great. Thank you. Good afternoon. David, just want to tie in some of the leasing comments, the momentum you’re seeing, the deals in the pipeline, the high occupancy levels to the redevelopment pipeline. And just, I guess, how are you thinking about that pipeline and the ability to increase that? Like, how are you going to satisfy some of the needs out there and continue to capture that market share maybe even more?
