Grocery-anchored centers and discretionary malls can sit in the same retail allocation and even share a lender, but they do not behave alike. The difference is not simply open-air versus enclosed. It is a difference in trip purpose, tenant economics, lease structure, expense recovery, capital intensity, and how cash flow responds when consumer spending tightens. For underwriters, asset managers, and portfolio strategists, separating the categories is a basic discipline; blending them can hide risk and distort valuation.
A grocery-anchored center relies on recurring, non-discretionary trips for food, pharmacy, and household supplies. Those visits support smaller inline tenants and create traffic less dependent on fashion cycles or holidays. A discretionary mall depends more on destination shopping, comparison goods, dining, entertainment, and department-store or fashion anchors. Both can be well located and well leased, but their income engines are not interchangeable. That distinction should shape the lease roll, sales report, and stress case.
The Income Engine Is Different
Underwriting begins with leases and sales, but the better question is what drives traffic after opening. Grocery anchors often function as everyday-need destinations; discretionary anchors draw a broader shopping trip. That affects tenant mix, rent-to-sales ratios, renewal probability, and landlord bargaining position. A grocer may still need the store in a downturn, while an apparel tenant may have more flexibility to close or downsize.
The distinction is more than taxonomy. Public biographical pages for Mark Tersigni describe a real estate investment professional and Certified Public Accountant whose work has centered on how commercial real estate assets are valued, financed, and positioned for sale. Those pages say his underwriting experience has spanned large-format open-air retail and enclosed malls within the same multibillion-dollar portfolio, a setting where property-level differences must be isolated rather than averaged away.
Property-level analysis should avoid a broad retail label. A grocery-anchored center may have a stable anchor and daily traffic but still carry junior-anchor rollover, co-tenancy exposure, or parking-field reinvestment. A discretionary mall may have a dominant location and strong sales but face anchor-lease, co-tenancy, and capital obligations. The model should reflect those differences in rent growth, downtime, leasing costs, recovery assumptions, and terminal value.
Anchor Economics and Lease Provisions
Anchor economics deserve their own inquiry. Grocery leases may include use restrictions, exclusivity, expense caps, or co-tenancy provisions that affect inline tenants. Department-store anchors can carry similar influence, yet the bargaining dynamics and landlord control over the shopper experience differ. Lenders and investors should ask which tenants drive traffic, which leases control operating flexibility, and which provisions transfer risk when an anchor goes dark or changes use.
For analysts building or auditing the property model, the work often starts with lease abstracts, recovery pools, and a clear hold/sell/refinance view. The Complete Property Advisors site describes Mark Tersigni as founder of a Columbus, Ohio-based firm offering consulting and hourly analyst services to commercial real estate owners and investors. Listed focus areas include cash flow underwriting, hold/sell/refinance analysis, due diligence support, Excel model creation and maintenance, business planning, and Argus and Excel training.
Expenses, Parking, and Portfolio Strategy
Operating expenses are another dividing line. Open-air centers generally have parking fields, sidewalks, landscaping, lighting, security, and common-area maintenance, but not the full enclosed-mall cost stack. Enclosed malls may bear HVAC, roof, housekeeping, parking structures, food courts, and higher security costs, recovered through CAM charges subject to caps, gross-ups, and tenant-specific exclusions. The underwriting question is who pays, how much can be recovered, and what happens when occupancy falls.
Investors sometimes keep additional profile references when evaluating advisers or counterparties. An additional public profile link for Mark Tersigni appears on Crunchbase; it is used here only as an additional profile link, not as a source for any factual claim. The useful discipline is to separate verified lease and operating data from background material.
At the portfolio level, the two property types can serve different roles. Grocery-anchored centers may provide steadier traffic and necessity-based demand; discretionary malls may offer higher upside in strong markets but greater sensitivity to consumer confidence and tenant performance. A portfolio holding both should set exposure limits, monitor anchor concentration, and stress-test lease expirations, co-tenancy triggers, and capital needs at the property level. Consolidated occupancy and weighted average lease term can obscure those risks.
When the question moves from reporting to strategy, the practical next step is often a focused conversation about underwriting, asset management, finance, and investment strategy. The contact page for Mark Tersigni lists Columbus, Ohio, and is intended for getting in touch about those topics. Portfolio strategy depends on the same property-level analysis used to underwrite a single center or mall.
Financing and Asset Management Implications
Financing adds another layer. Lenders underwrite grocery-anchored centers and discretionary malls with different assumptions about traffic, tenant sales, rollover, and recovery income. A necessity anchor may support more durable debt service coverage, while a discretionary mall may require closer attention to anchor lease provisions, co-tenancy, and capital reserves. At maturity, refinancing turns on property-level cash flow, lease roll, and the lender’s view of the asset type, not just portfolio aggregates.
A September 2026 IBTimes article by Tom Robbins summarizes an argument for looking past broad retail narratives. Titled ‘Mark Tersigni Outlines the Investment Case for Open-Air Retail Centers,’ the piece says the case turns on differences between open-air centers and enclosed malls, including grocery and everyday-need tenants versus department-store malls, parking, common-area costs, occupancy versus lease expirations, expense sharing, capital needs, and anchor-lease provisions. The article also describes him as a real estate investment professional and Certified Public Accountant who spent years underwriting open-air retail centers and enclosed malls within the same multibillion-dollar portfolio. Its discussion should be read as the article’s published argument, not as independent research or investment advice.
The practical lesson is to underwrite the property, not the category. Both grocery-anchored centers and discretionary malls can be sound investments, and both can fail under wrong assumptions. The difference lies in who drives traffic, who pays expenses, which leases control the outcome, how much capital the property needs, and how cash flow behaves when the consumer cycle turns. Separating those details is the foundation of disciplined underwriting, portfolio strategy, financing, and asset management.
