What the Largest Shopping Center Owners in America Are Telling Us About Retail Real Estate
If you’ve been reading retail bankruptcy headlines and assuming the sector is struggling, the largest landlords in the country beg to differ. The five largest shopping center owners in America recently filed their 10-Ks, and fundamentals are stronger than they have been in years. Here’s what these landlords are telling investors right now and what it means for the retail industry.
First, what’s a REIT and what’s a 10-K?
A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a publicly traded company that owns and operates income-producing real estate. In exchange for favorable tax treatment, REITs distribute at least 90% of their taxable income to shareholders as dividends.
A 10-K is the annual report every public company files with the SEC. It provides a detailed look at financial performance, property operations, leasing activity, debt levels, and other key metrics. Together with quarterly filings, these reports offer one of the clearest views into the health of commercial real estate portfolios.
That makes REIT filings valuable beyond public market investors. The five shopping center REITs covered here, Kimco Realty, Regency Centers, Brixmor Property Group, Kite Realty Group, and Federal Realty Investment Trust, collectively own roughly 275 million square feet of grocery-anchored and open-air retail space across the U.S. Their results provide a useful benchmark for broader retail real estate trends.
Strip away the jargon and there are only four questions you need answered to judge how a REIT is doing:
Is the existing portfolio making more money than last year? The technical term is “same-property NOI growth” – NOI being net operating income, basically rent collected minus operating costs. “Same-property” means they’re only counting buildings they owned the whole time in both years, so a big acquisition doesn’t artificially inflate the number. Think of it as same-store sales, but for shopping centers.
How full are the buildings? Occupancy. Self-explanatory, but worth separating into two buckets: anchor tenants (the big box stores – your Targets, your grocery chains) and small shops (smaller-format spaces – a mix of local businesses and national chains like a fast-casual restaurant or a phone carrier store). Small shop occupancy is the more sensitive read on the health of the local economy, because those tenants tend to struggle first when consumers pull back.
How much debt are they carrying relative to what they earn? “Net debt to EBITDA” sounds intimidating but it’s the same math as a mortgage lender asking what multiple of your income you’re borrowing. Lower is safer. A REIT at 5x is borrowed at five times its annual cash earnings; one at 6x is more leveraged and more exposed if rates rise or the business slows.
Did earnings actually grow? “FFO” – funds from operations – is the REIT version of a company’s bottom line. Regular net income gets distorted for real estate companies because depreciation makes profitable buildings look like they’re losing money on paper. FFO adds that back, so it’s the number REIT investors actually watch. (One note: some companies also report a “Core FFO” figure with additional company-specific adjustments – this article uses NAREIT FFO, the standardized version, throughout for consistency across all five companies.)
That’s it. Four numbers, and you can have a real conversation about any REIT.
Part 1: How 2025 actually played out
Regency Centers had the strongest full year by a clear margin, growing the income on its existing buildings by 5.3% – and that’s after stripping out one-time lease termination payments, so it’s a clean read on real demand. Most of that growth came from charging existing and new tenants more rent, rather than from one-time items – rent increases alone accounted for over 80% of the gain, backed by strong leasing spreads (roughly 11% on new and renewal leases) and record-high small-shop occupancy. Brixmor and Federal Realty also had solid years, in the high-3% to low-4% range. Kimco and Kite Realty came in lower, around 3%, for two different reasons: Kimco was simply coming off two unusually strong years and facing a tougher comparison, while Kite was mid-stride on a deliberate strategy of selling older “power centers” and reinvesting in grocery-anchored properties – a trade that depresses this-year numbers before it shows up as future growth.
Regency and Federal Realty had the strongest small-shop occupancy in the group, just above 94% and 93%, respectively – largely because both buy in wealthy, supply-constrained suburbs where there’s no room to build competing space. Anchor occupancy was tight across the board (96.6%-97.9%), but small shops are the more telling number, since those are the businesses most sensitive to the local economy. Kimco, Brixmor, and Kite Realty all ran a bit lower on that measure, around 92-93%, which isn’t bad news by itself – it just means more room to keep leasing up vacant space.
Kite Realty led the pack here with the lowest debt relative to earnings of any of the five. Federal Realty carried the most leverage, though credit rating agencies still rated them just as strongly as the more conservative players, trusting the quality of the real estate to support that debt.
Regency’s earnings grew nearly 8% for the year, the best of the group. Kite Realty’s earnings growth was nearly flat – the one real outlier – mostly due to merger-accounting noise winding down and the timing lag between selling properties and reinvesting the proceeds.
The FY2025 ranking
Regency Centers – best in nearly every category, no weak spot
Federal Realty – highest-quality real estate, full buildings, strongest pricing power
Brixmor – solid growth, more room to keep leasing up vacant space
Kimco – biggest scale, healthy results, the most ordinary year of the five
Kite Realty – best balance sheet, but 2025’s earnings print doesn’t yet reflect the portfolio moves made during the year
Here’s where it gets interesting. Each of these five just reported their first-quarter 2026 results (filed late April / early May), and the story has already started to shift in a few real ways. Important caveat: this is one quarter of new data, not a full new year – Q2 results won’t land until late July, so treat this as an early read, not a final verdict.
Brixmor delivered the strongest quarter of the group, driven by robust leasing spreads, accelerating same-property NOI growth, and an increase to full-year guidance.
Federal Realty reported another strong quarter, with solid operating growth and higher guidance, although a portion of its earnings growth reflected one-time gains.
Kite Realty posted lower reported FFO due to timing-related items, but underlying operating performance improved and management raised its full-year outlook.
Regency Centers continued to outperform peers despite moderating growth from an exceptionally strong 2025, with management expecting a softer second quarter before activity improves later in the year.
Kimco Realty delivered a steady quarter, characterized by modest earnings growth, incremental occupancy gains, and consistent operating performance.
Q4 2025 Shopping Center REIT Earnings Report
What This Means for Retail Owners
The first-quarter results point to a consistent theme across the shopping center sector: well-located, grocery-anchored retail continues to benefit from limited new supply, healthy tenant demand, and strong leasing fundamentals. Occupancy remains high, leasing spreads are positive, and most major shopping center REITs either raised or reaffirmed full-year guidance. While retailer bankruptcies and store closures continue to generate headlines, many landlords have successfully replaced weaker tenants with stronger concepts at higher rents, reinforcing the resilience of necessity-based retail.
For retail owners, the takeaway is not simply that shopping centers are performing well, but why they are performing well. Scarce new development has increased the value of existing, well-located assets, creating opportunities to re-lease space at market rents, reposition underperforming tenant mixes, and invest strategically in existing centers rather than compete with new supply. Owners should also remain focused on tenant quality, as rising operating costs, tariffs, and refinancing pressures could create challenges for weaker retailers even as overall market fundamentals remain favorable. The strongest assets will be those that continue to attract necessity-based tenants, adapt to changing consumer preferences, and capitalize on today’s supply-constrained environment.
