Homart Development Company, a

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-based subsidiary of

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

, was one of the largest builders of shopping centers and malls in the

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from 1959 to 1995.

Company history

As retail development in the United States shifted away from downtowns with the growth of suburbia after World War II, some major department stores such as

moved into the business of developing malls in which to place new anchor tenant locations. Homart Development Company was founded in 1959 for the purpose of building regional shopping malls for

. The "Homart" brand name had been used by Sears for many years before the development company was founded. (1945 Sears advertisement includes "Homart" products) Seminary South Shopping Center in Fort Worth was their first project.("Seminary South was the first shopping center developed by Homart Development") By 1971, Homart was operating nine regional shopping locations, and had numerous others in development. It became the nation's second largest mall developer, and by 1992 it was reported that Homart had developed 80 malls with over of retail space. By 1994, it was also operating 36 of those developed malls. In November 1994, Sears announced that it planned to sell off Homart as part of a restructuring.("Sears also said today that it would sell its Homart Development Company, a real estate development firm. ") General Growth Properties completed an acquisition of Homart in late 1995 in a transaction valued at $1.85 billion, then one of the biggest real estate deals in history.("General Growth made a number of high-profile acquisitions of shopping malls in every part of the country. Some of General Growth's biggest included: the $1.85 billion acquisition of Homart Development Co. from Sears Roebuck in 1995, said to be one of the largest real estate transactions in history at the time") Homart also owned a number of office buildings which were also sold in 1995.

Management

Sears executive Emory Williams was the first president of Homart. Warren G. Skoning was appointed president in 1967, and elected as chairman in 1974. Also serving as vice-president of

real estate development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw Real Estate, land and the sale of developed land or parce ...

for Sears, Skoning was involved in the development of the Sears Tower.("Mr. Skoning was co-chairman of the building committee for Sears Tower and had much of the responsibility for the construction of the mammoth skyscraper...") W.E. Lewis was named president in 1974 when Skoning became chair. Edwin Homer, former president of Chrysler Realty, joined as president in 1980, later became chair and CEO, and served until his retirement in 1984.Kowinski, William Severini. ''The Malling of America'' (2000 ed.) ()(Kowinski incorrectly identifies Homer as "Ernest," but notes his appearance at an ICSC conference in the early 1980s: "There was affable Ernest Homer, head of Homart, the developing arm of Sears — the largest retailer and biggest advertiser in the country — who handed out a business card that was also bigger than anyone else's.") Homer diversified Homart's portfolio by developing office properties and community centers, in addition to malls, and also sold some of Homart's malls to generate additional profit for Sears. In 1985, Michael J. Gregoire was named president and COO, and he also became chairman in 1987.

Notable projects

Notable shopping centers developed by Homart include: The Nanuet Mall in Rockland County New York opened in 1969- 101 stores anchored by Sears and Bambergers, (first enclosed mall in the county and about 25 miles from Manhattan).

References

{{Sears Holdings Corporation Shopping center management firms Sears Holdings