The Macerich Company is in the middle of a deliberate reconstruction, and the first half of 2026 tells you a great deal about where it stands. The company is selling non-core regional malls, buying two better ones, issuing equity at prices it would have considered generous a year earlier, and quietly surrendering one of its own properties to a receiver rather than keep feeding a loan. Every element of that program points to the same objective, narrowing the gap between the leverage on this balance sheet and the cash flow the portfolio actually produces.
The operating numbers support the idea that the portfolio is stabilizing. Same Center NOI grew about 4% in the first half, and the leased occupancy rate climbed to 94.0%. Comparable tenant sales advanced modestly over the trailing twelve months, and base rent spreads on newly signed leases stayed positive for another consecutive stretch of quarters. These are modest but real improvements, and they matter because the equity story depends on FFO growing enough to absorb a much lower leverage level.
The counterweight is the pace of the equity program. Macerich issued 22.1 million shares in a May 13 public offering. It struck a forward sale of 16.1 million shares in June. Another 4.5 million shares went through the at-the-market program in the first half, at an average of $19.21. That is roughly 42.7 million new shares against a year-ago base of about 253 million, and the old shareholders now hold a visibly smaller slice of the equity while the company works off the debt.
The next test is whether the lease pipeline and the redevelopments at Green Acres Mall, Scottsdale Fashion Square and FlatIron Crossing can convert into FFO growth that outpaces the share count. If they can, the Path Forward Plan ends with a smaller, better portfolio and a leverage ratio that no longer requires the equity tap. If they cannot, the company has exchanged one problem, an overextended capital structure, for another, a permanently diluted base of owners holding a portfolio that still does not earn enough. At the current price near $22.47, the stock already embeds the first outcome to a substantial degree, which leaves little margin for execution stumbles.