Mall Developer & Pioneer Mel Simon Dead at 82

Mel Simon, known for being a pioneer in the shopping mall industry (co-owner of the Indiana Pacers) died Wednesday at 82 after a short illness.

Simon put in considerable years as leader of what is now called the Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group. As the son of a New York tailor, invested nearly 40 years in the nation’s largest shopping mall company. He and his brother Herb bought the Pacers in 1983 when it looked as if the NBA team would be moved. The team staged a great turnaround under the Simons, even though they remained behind the scenes for most of their ownership.

Before Simon Property Group got its name, it was Melvin Simon & Associates, named for the man who started the company in 1960 in Indianapolis.

Jerry Kosene of the Indianapolis development firm Kosene & Kosene said Melvin Simon “helped invent an industry. He was among two or three pivotal people in the shopping center industry who created the enclosed shopping mall. No one did it on the scale and velocity he did it.”

He was known for being of a “different ilk” than what you find today – “street savvy men with great integrity,” Kosene has said. A handshake was considered as good as a man’s word.