Expect New Stores and Many Shoppers at PREIT Malls This Holiday Season

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Dec 01, 2022, 06:55 ET

2021 Record New Leasing Activity Leads to 450,000 square feet of new stores since last holiday season, representing nearly 5% YOY occupancy growth

Proactive Cultivation of Local and Small Businesses Leads to Half of Portfolio being Fully Occupied and 17% Growth in Black and Brown-Owned Businesses

Great Deals, Lots of Customers, Shopper surprises, Photos with Santa and more

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PREIT (NYSE: PEI), today, highlighted what droves of shoppers are experiencing this holiday season at its properties.

New stores

PREIT's leasing success over the past two years, leading to a remarkable 480 basis point increase in occupancy, has resulted in many new stores for shoppers to visit. Since last holiday season began, over 450,000 square feet of new stores have opened.

Permanent store success has also resulted in increased interest from small and diverse business, a primary focus of PREITs as it seeks to differentiate its properties and offer unique experiences. As a product of this successful effort, half of PREIT's properties are fully leased this holiday season!

As part of PREIT's effort to cultivate diverse businesses, the number of Black and Brown-owned businesses operating across its portfolio increased by 17% since 2021 to nearly 140 across 17 properties.

Shoppers can also expect great deals along with lots of company at the mall. Traffic over Black Friday weekend was in line with 2021 across the portfolio with top-performers Springfield Town Center and Woodland Malls posting the largest gains over last year.

PREIT Malls are also randomly surprising visitors with gift cards and giveaways every Wednesday through Christmas Week, hosting special events and, as part of their continued effort to be a centerpiece in their communities, partnering with Cards for Hospitalized Kids where children waiting to visit with Santa can decorate a car for a hospitalized child.

"With NRF predicting strong sales holiday growth again this year, we are pleased to offer our customers a distinctive, fun and community-focused holiday season," said Joseph Coradino, Chairman & CEO of PREIT. "Our leasing success provides continual reasons to visit our properties, with many new stores and experiences opening over the past year and the tactile experience of new products and social gatherings."

About PREIT

PREIT (NYSE:PEI) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and manages innovative properties developed to be thoughtful, community-centric hubs. PREIT's robust portfolio of carefully curated, ever-evolving properties generates success for its tenants and meaningful impact for the communities it serves by keenly focusing on five core areas of established and emerging opportunity: multi-family & hotel, health & tech, retail, essentials & grocery and experiential. Located primarily in densely-populated regions, PREIT is a top operator of high quality, purposeful places that serve as one-stop destinations for customers to shop, dine, play and stay. Additional information is available at www.preit.com or on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "may" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans, strategies, anticipated events, trends and other matters that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy and other future events and conditions and are based on currently available financial, economic and competitive data and our current business plans. Actual results could vary materially depending on risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that may affect our operations, markets, services, prices and other factors as discussed in the Risk Factors section of our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. While we believe our assumptions are reasonable, we caution you against relying on any forward-looking statements as it is very difficult to predict the impact of known factors, and it is impossible for us to anticipate all factors that could affect our actual results. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the effectiveness of strategies we may employ to address our liquidity and capital resources in the future, our ability to achieve our forecasted revenue and pro forma leverage ratio and generate free cash flow to further reduce our indebtedness; our ability to manage our business through the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a weakening of global economic and financial conditions, changes in governmental regulations and related compliance and litigation costs and the other factors listed in our SEC filings. Additionally, our business might be materially and adversely affected by changes in the retail and real estate industries, including bankruptcies, consolidation and store closings, particularly among anchor tenants; current economic conditions, including consumer confidence and spending levels and supply chain challenges and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health and governmental response as well as the corresponding effects on tenant business performance, prospects, solvency and leasing decisions; our inability to collect rent due to the bankruptcy or insolvency of tenants or otherwise; our ability to maintain and increase property occupancy, sales and rental rates; increases in operating costs that cannot be passed on to tenants; the effects of online shopping and other uses of technology on our retail tenants; risks related to our development and redevelopment activities, including delays, cost overruns and our inability to reach projected occupancy or rental rates; social unrest and acts of vandalism and violence at malls, including our properties, or at other similar spaces, and the potential effect on traffic and sales; the frequency, severity and impact of extreme weather events at or near our properties; our ability to sell properties that we seek to dispose of or our ability to obtain prices we seek; our substantial debt and the liquidation preference of our preferred shares and our high leverage ratio and our ability to remain in compliance with our financial covenants under our debt facilities; our ability to refinance our existing indebtedness when it matures, on favorable terms or at all; our ability to raise capital, including through sales of properties or interests in properties and through the issuance of equity or equity-related securities if market conditions are favorable; and potential dilution from any capital raising transactions or other equity issuances.

Additional factors that might cause future events, achievements or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements include those discussed herein, and in the sections entitled "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021. We do not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact:
Heather Crowell
[email protected]
[email protected]

SOURCE PREIT