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STUDY: E-TAILING COSTS STATES $13.3B IN LOST SALES TAXES
Uncollected state sales tax revenues on Internet purchases will rise to $13.3 billion this year, according to a study completed for the Institute for State Studies (ISS), a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit foundation devoted to studying public policy and new technologies. This represents a 41% increase over 2000 levels, and the study predicts that by 2011 losses will reach $54.8 billion. The report covered the 45 states and the District of Columbia that rely on sales tax revenue. The ISS contracted the University of Tennessee’s Center for Business and Research to conduct the report.

S&P ADDS FIRST REITS TO ITS INDICES
Standard & Poor’s in early October added REITs to several of its main indices for the first time. Six REITs were placed in three S&P indices. New York City-based New Plan Excel and Birmingham, Ala.-based Colonial Properties Trust were two retail-related REITs among those that were included. Equity Office Properties, the largest U.S. REIT, was added to the highly regarded S&P 500. The announcement came after a campaign by REIT owners and analysts to convince S&P to look at REITs the same way as it judges other public companies instead of considering them as a different asset class.

S&P’s indices are often used as an investment guideline for some mutual funds, so REITs will now have access to capital from these investments. Moreover, the inclusion could change public perception of REITs, encouraging investors to add them to their portfolios.

“This is a tremendous positive for the industry,” said Salomon Smith Barney REIT analyst Ross Nussbaum. “The door is open for new additions, and I think we’ll see companies like Simon [Property Group], Kimco [Realty Trust] and Weingarten [Realty Investors] added in the future. … [The development gives REITs] access to more investment capital. That can only be a positive.”

HUNTINGTON BEACH MALL GETTING $150M RENOVATION
Ezralow Co., J.H. Snyder Co. and the Huntington Beach Redevelopment Agency have unveiled a $150 million plan to revitalize the 30-year-old, 1 million-square-foot Huntington Beach (Calif.) Mall. They plan to convert the nearly vacant enclosed mall into an Italian villa-themed open-air center. Irvine, Calif.-based Ezralow purchased the center two years ago. Two current tenants, Burlington Coat Factory and Mervyn’s, will be part of the new center. New tenants will include Sears’ Great Indoors concept and an 80,000-square-foot cinema. Construction is slated to begin in mid-2002, with the opening scheduled for 2003.

TAUBMAN’S INTERNATIONAL PLAZA OPENS
Taubman Centers, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., went ahead with the Sept. 14 grand opening of its 1.2 million-square-foot International Plaza, Tampa, Fla., three days after the terrorist attacks on the United States, but canceled all the gala festivities that were to accompany the opening. An estimated 250,000 customers visited the center during the weekend, said Taubman spokeswoman Karen McDonald.