STAMFORD, CT — In a Q3 update that should have been buried on a Friday afternoon, Heartland Mall Properties confirmed Monday that the highest-performing tenant across its 22-property portfolio is a Spirit Halloween that signed a six-week lease on August 19.
The REIT, which trades under HMPT and once anchored its prospectus on a Sears in Toledo, disclosed that Spirit Halloween is the only tenant currently paying full rent on time at the Westfield Crestmoor location, an abandoned Bed Bath & Beyond in Oklahoma City, and a former Pier 1 in Buffalo that has been listed as “transitioning” since March 2022.
“They wired the deposit. They wired the deposit,” said an HMPT asset manager reached at his desk, where a half-eaten Sweetgreen harvest bowl sat beside a three-ring binder labeled OCCUPANCY — REAL. “Do you understand how long it has been since someone wired us a deposit.”
Internal materials reviewed by analysts at Beacon Strategy show HMPT has begun referring to Spirit Halloween in investor decks as an “anchor tenant,” a “category co-pilot,” and, on slide 14 of a deck dated last Tuesday, “the franchise.” The chain occupies roughly 184,000 square feet across the portfolio and will vacate, contractually, by November 4.
A footnote in the 10-Q discloses that management is “actively exploring” extending the Spirit Halloween relationship into a year-round concept, including a December pivot called Spirit Christmas — a real product launch by the parent company — and an internally proposed “Spirit February,” which the deck describes only as “TBD — possibly Valentines.”
Reached at the Buffalo location, a Spirit Halloween district manager named Ron paused while inflating a 12-foot animatronic werewolf to note that his store was on track to gross more in eight weeks than the Pier 1 had grossed in its final fourteen months. “We brought our own light bulbs,” he added. “Their bulbs were out.”
Other HMPT tenants — a SuperCuts that has been on a percentage-of-sales arrangement since 2023, a tax preparer who pays only in May, and a Things Remembered the REIT has reclassified as a “long-tail seasonal performer” — were unavailable for comment. A Sbarro at the Crestmoor property is currently subleasing its hood vent.
HMPT’s chief revenue officer, on a 4 p.m. call with three buy-side analysts and what sounded like a leaf blower in the background, framed the dynamic as evidence of “a thesis-validating pivot toward experiential retail,” then asked whether anyone on the line knew if Spooner’s Pumpkin Patch was a publicly traded entity.
Shares of HMPT closed up 1.4% on the news, then gave it all back when an analyst at MERIDIAN-3 noted in a 6 p.m. flash that the entire investment thesis was now timed to a chain that sells $39 wigs out of buildings nobody wanted.