Macerich, one of the country's largest operators of Class A enclosed shopping centers, is accelerating its push into destination dining and food-experience retail, signing first-to-market locations with Eataly, Seafood City, and Din Tai Fung as part of a broader effort to use food and beverage as a leasing anchor.
The move reflects a structural shift in how premium mall operators are filling large-format vacancies left by traditional department stores. Rather than chase apparel or electronics tenants, Macerich and its peers are turning to high-draw foodservice and specialty grocery concepts that generate sustained foot traffic across dayparts — a dynamic that has reshaped leasing strategy industry-wide over the past several years.
Why Food Is Winning
Eataly, the Italian food-hall and marketplace chain, is a particularly high-profile addition. Its multi-floor format — combining a market, multiple restaurants, and cooking classes — can occupy upward of 50,000 square feet, making it a functional anchor replacement. Seafood City, the Filipino-American supermarket chain with an in-store food court, targets a fast-growing demographic and brings both grocery and foodservice traffic. Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese dumpling brand with a global cult following, is among the most sought-after sit-down dining concepts in the Western market, with locations routinely generating wait times that drive surrounding tenant performance.
All three represent what the industry now calls "experience-forward" concepts — operations where the act of visiting cannot be replicated online, a critical attribute as e-commerce continues to pressure the case for in-person retail. For mall landlords, the calculus is straightforward: food tenants that command destination status can lift the performance of adjacent non-food retailers, justifying the capital expenditure required to retrofit space for commercial kitchen infrastructure.
Competitive Landscape
Macerich's food-led leasing strategy aligns with moves by rivals including Simon Property Group and Brookfield Properties, both of which have signed high-profile restaurant and specialty food tenants in recent years. The broader trend has been well-documented across the foodservice industry and in consumer-trend coverage, with food-and-beverage now accounting for a growing share of gross leasable area at top-tier malls nationwide.
For restaurant and food-retail operators, placement inside a Macerich Class A property — which typically anchors an affluent suburban trade area — offers exposure to high-income consumers and co-tenancy with national brands. First-to-market positioning in a given metro is an additional draw, providing the kind of exclusivity that supports premium pricing and brand cachet.
The company has not disclosed specific lease economics, square footage commitments, or a timeline for the individual openings, limiting the ability to assess the financial impact on occupancy rates or base rent per square foot. Investors and analysts tracking the REIT sector will be watching whether the food-experience pivot translates into measurable gains in same-center sales and traffic metrics in coming quarters.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
