Melvin Simon

Melvin Simon (1926 to 2009) was an American real estate developer and film producer who built one of the largest shopping mall businesses in the world. Born in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx, he trained as an accountant at the City College of New York, then settled in Indianapolis after Army service and began as a leasing agent. In 1959 he formed a leasing company with his younger brother Herb, called Melvin Simon and Associates, which grew from strip centers anchored by groceries and drugstores into fully enclosed malls. The firm went public in 1993 as Simon Property Group, raising about one billion dollars, and later merged with DeBartolo Realty. Simon also produced films, including Porky's, and with his brother bought the Indiana Pacers in 1983. He died of cancer in 2009; a dispute over his will followed.