The Delaware Court of Chancery declined to grant competing motions for summary judgment in a dispute between the country’s largest owner of shopping malls, Simon Property Group Inc., and a German sponsor of international real estate funds over a contract permitting Simon to exchange money for shares in a defunct partnership. Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III said the case could not be dismissed at the pleading stage because the contract is ambiguous.
Affiliates of Simon, the nation’s largest retail center owner, and KanAm, a German real estate investment company, jointly hold ownership interests in four Delaware limited partnerships created to own shopping malls throughout the country, according to court documents. The funds owned Arundel Mills in Hanover, Md., Grapevine Mills in Grapevine, Texas, Orange City Mills in Orange, Calif., and Concord Mills in Concord, N.C.
