Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money.

From full global headquarters, this is Motley Full Money.

It's the Motley Full Money radio show. I'm Chris L. Joining me this week, Jason Moser and Ron Gruss.

Good to see you too.

We've got the latest headlines from Wall Street. We're going to head to Sydney, Australia to get Joe Mayger's latest thoughts on investing.

And as always, we've got a couple of stocks on our radar. But we begin with the future of malls.

Simon Property Group, the largest mall owner in America, is in talks with Amazon about the possibility of turning some of Simon's anchor department stores into Amazon distribution hubs.

Ron Gruss, let me start with you. What do you think about this? Whether it's what it means for Amazon, what it does for Simon Property Group, and the ripple effects for the other businesses that are in those malls?

You know, out of necessity, something's got to get done. There are about a thousand malls still open in the US. And roughly 60% of those have department store retailers like Macy's as anchor stores.

And as we know, those businesses are in trouble. A report from Green Street Advisors predicts that 50% of the department stores anchoring the malls are going to close permanently by the end of next year.

That creates a lot of vacancies, creates a lot of ripple effects for the other stores in the mall that count on these anchor stores to bring in traffic.

So I think there's going to be a lot of redevelopment here with a lot of real estate we're talking about. A lot of malls that are going to close. And so you're going to see things like office parks, apartment buildings, mix use with some retail perhaps senior living facilities hotels and distribution centers from the likes of Amazon.

The pandemic has put some of this redevelopment on hold, but it will pick up eventually. I would assume next year. And as you said, Simon exploring the deal with Amazon talks about converting the JC penny stores and the Sears stores specifically into distribution centers.

So we'll see what happens. You know, the more these anchor stores stay vacant, the more it could trigger what's called cotennancy clauses from the other retailers in the mall like gap who have in their leases the ability to renegotiate what they pay and rent if those anchor stores stay vacant.

And I'm sure we're going to see plenty of those folks try to renegotiate and get their rents down.

Yeah, Jason, it would be obviously expensive in years in the making, but when I think about as Ron said, those mixed use spaces where you've got residential apartments condos, etc. on top. And then a couple of floors of retail below, it seems like that could be one potential future.

Yeah, I mean, you said it there in mixed use. I was going to refer to what Ron said as well in regard to mixed use. That to me is going to be the key to all of this. Ultimately, it's all it's about, it's about what is needed, right? I mean, decades ago, malls were, I don't know if needed, but certainly the demand was there. I just don't think the demand is going to be there for the coming years when it comes to malls and changing the use cases over to other other things, whether that's.

And I think that's the most important thing to do is to get the best apartment buildings or hospitals or schools or whatever it may be.

I mean, commercial real estate is definitely in for a bit of a reckoning, but it will just be a matter of finding out what, you know, what do we need in the new essentially?

I'll have investors come in there to help reshape the space.

The distribution center angle is not that exciting to the average retailer in a mall because it doesn't have the effect of what an anchor store is supposed to have.

So one thing I've been hearing, been seeing, been reading about is the potential for Amazon or others to bring in grocery stores into those spaces, which could potentially then have the effect of what an anchor store is supposed to do, bring in others, have you continue to shop throughout the mall?

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