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Macerich (MAC) to Add Ticketed Attractions to its Town Centers

The Macerich Company MAC is set to welcome ticketed attractions, The Dr. Seuss Experience and World of Barbie, at Tysons Corner Center and Santa Monica Place, respectively. In the past, time-sensitive ticketed attractions have proven to pull in traffic at MAC’s top-performing properties, making its latest move a strategic fit.

Both these attractions are being introduced to Macerich by Kilburn Live, a global market leader in branded live entertainment, collectively with Fever, the leading entertainment discovery platform.

Reflecting broader market concerns, shares of MAC lost 1.27% on Apr 7 regular trading session on the NYSE.

The Dr. Seuss Experience, an imaginative and interactive immersion into the wondrous world of Dr. Seuss, is scheduled to open in early April.

World of Barbie, which allows guests to explore a life-size Barbie Dreamhouse, try out several Barbie careers displayed in various interactive rooms and even sit behind the wheel of a full-size Barbie Camper Van, is slated to open in mid-April.

Also, MAC’s town centers have showcased the pop-culture touring art exhibit based on the work of British street art icon Banksy — Banksy Was Here — which is now open through May 31, 2023, at Fashion District Philadelphia.
 
The immersive, candy-themed wonderland, Candytopia, opened mid-March at Tysons Corner Center.

Further, in December 2022, Santa Monica Place hosted Michael Murphy's art exhibition, Perceptual Shift, which featured a unique collection of thought-provoking installations from the world's top perceptual artist.

Per Petra Maruca, senior vice president, business development, Macerich, “As we continue to evolve our high-quality real estate to meet the needs of our communities, ticketed attractions fit well with our overall strategy of adding more uses and more reasons for people to spend time at Macerich properties.”

Macerich has a portfolio of premium assets in the United States, with a notable presence in California, the Pacific Northwest, Arizona and the Metro New York to Washington, DC corridor. These properties are located in densely populated areas, where affluent consumers with significant disposable incomes live and play, offering the company solid scope to generate decent cash flows.

The increase in consumers’ preference for in-person shopping experiences following the pandemic downtime has been driving the recovery in the retail real estate industry. Retailers continue to rent out more physical store spaces to meet this growing demand.

As a result, retail REITs, including Macerich, are expected to experience a rise in leasing activity and pricing power, and flourish.

In 2022, the company signed 974 new and renewal leases for roughly 3.8 million square feet. Its portfolio occupancy improved year over year from 91.5% to 92.6% as of Dec 31, 2022.

Recently, the company welcomed Chinese restaurant — Din Tai Fung — to Santa Monica Place, and fashion retailer — Zara — and Irish retail brand — Primark — to Queens Center in New York City.

Nonetheless, higher e-commerce adoption and rising interest rates are key concerns for Macerich.  

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have lost 16% over the past three months compared with its industry's decline of 5.6%.

Zacks Investment Research
Zacks Investment Research


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Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the retail REIT sector are Federal Realty Investment Trust FRT, Essential Properties Realty Trust EPRT and Urstadt Biddle Properties UBA, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Federal Realty’s ongoing year’s FFO per share is pegged at $6.47.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Essential Properties Realty Trust’s 2023 FFO per share is pegged at $1.64.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Urstadt Biddle Properties’ current-year FFO per share is pegged at $1.60.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represent funds from operations (FFO) — a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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