As Malls Multiply, Developers Fight Fiercely for Turf

RICHMOND, Va. -- In November 2000, a lawyer for developer Taubman Centers Inc. met with three suburban taxpayers here to pose a sensitive question. Would they be interested in challenging a rival developer's plan to build a $160 million shopping mall just five miles away from a Taubman mall?

"I told them I knew some people who might be interested in helping them," recalls the lawyer, Steven W. Pearson.

The three suburbanites took him up on his offer -- and soon filed a legal challenge against a bond issue related to the proposed mall. The action derailed the rival mall for a critical year and continues to frustrate the mall's developer, Forest City Enterprises Inc. The plaintiffs say they don't know who is picking up their legal tab, but Taubman acknowledges that it is.

Forest City executives are furious. "It's not the way the game is played," says James Ratner, an executive vice president at the Cleveland-based company.

But the mall game is changing quickly these days as the nation gets increasingly malled up....