Dark Days at Macerich's Malls

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Darkened and shuttered stores inside the malls of America are hurting Macerich(MAC Quote), which reported a 40% plunge in its second-quarter funds from operations.

The mall owner said its FFO fell to $59.9 million, or 67 cents a share, compared with $99.6 million, or $1.12 a share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding a $27 million charge for noncore assets, FFO was actually 98 cents, missing analysts' expectations by a penny.

The company also swung to a quarterly loss of $21.7 million, or 29 cents a share, as revenue slipped to $205.9 million from $217.9 million last year.

As consumers cut back on spending, the trend resulted in an 8% decline in sales per square foot to $428, while occupancy levels slipped 2.5 percentage points to 90.5%.

Shares of Macerich fell 1.5% to $19.75 in morning trading.

Rival Simon Property(SPG Quote) also saw its funds from operations decline 27% to $313.1 million, or 96 cents a share, and also swung to a net loss of $20.8 million, or 8 cents a share.

-- Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.