Taubman Places ‘Community First’ this Holiday Season to Recognize and Thank Customers and Employees, While Helping Those in Need

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE: TCO) has made its holiday list, and has checked it twice, ensuring it is focused on gratitude for customers and employees, and help for communities in need this season.

Community First

Taubman has launched #CommunityFirst - a new campaign designed to show appreciation for loyal customers that #BuyNearby, as well as the 2,000 or more retail workers employed per mall that help to power the local economies all year round. The campaign elements include:

• Taubman malls closing on Thanksgiving to enable mall and tenant employees to celebrate the holiday with family and friends (exception: International Market Place, Honolulu).

• A $150,000 grant awarded to Feeding America^® to help the organization achieve its mission to combat food insecurity. With this donation, the company will provide at least 1.5 million meals to those in need, mainly through local food banks in the 15 communities that are home to a Taubman mall. Each dollar donated helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America^® on behalf of member food banks.

• Donations of up to $1,000 made to charities on behalf of mall and tenant employees who have incredible personal stories or a passion for giving back. The selected employees will be featured in Community Spotlights on each mall’s social channels.

• Gift card giveaways and pay-it-forward promotions to surprise and delight customers who #BuyNearby at Taubman malls.

• #ShopYourWay that enables the varying shopping habits of customers by providing newly expanded holiday hours, curbside pickup and virtual queueing, powered by WaitWhile, at participating retailers.

• Connecting candidates to retail jobs. Taubman has launched WorkRetail, an easy-to-use, patented job-matching technology that pairs workers to jobs with Taubman’s retail tenants with the goal of putting thousands of job seekers to work. More information can be found at www.workretail.co.

Photos with Santa (November 27 – December 24, exceptions noted on mall websites)

The newly reimagined Santa’s Flight Academy will allow guests young and old to enjoy a properly socially-distanced visit with Santa at 12 locations this year thanks to Taubman’s longtime partner in delivering magical experiences Cherry Hill Programs. To take a photo with Santa, a pre-paid photo package reservation is required and can be obtained on the participating mall’s website. Per Cherry Hill Programs, Santa will wear a mask at all times, including during photos, regardless of mandate.

Cherry Creek Shopping Center		Denver, CO
Dolphin Mall		Miami, FL
Fair Oaks Mall		Fair Oaks, VA
Great Lakes Crossing Outlets		Auburn Hills MI
International Plaza		Tampa, FL
Sunvalley Shopping Center		Concord, CA
The Mall at Green Hills		Nashville, TN
The Mall of San Juan		San Juan, PR
The Mall at Short Hills		Short Hills, NJ
Twelve Oaks Mall		Novi, MI
The Mall at University Town Center		Sarasota, FL
Westfarms Mall		Westfarms, CT

Other Special Events

From Santa’s arrival celebrations and holiday markets to light shows and special promotions, each Taubman shopping mall has a variety of events and experiences designed to make the season memorable. Simply visit a mall’s website for more information.

Holiday Health & Safety

The health and safety of our customers is our first priority. We continue to follow local, state and federal laws and mandates, and CDC guidelines, as it relates to the global pandemic and ask our tenants to do the same. Efforts include:

• Removing the snowfall and high-touch, interactive elements from the Santa set
• Monitoring the temperature of employees and contractors prior to their shift. Asking individuals to leave if temperatures are 100.4 or above
• Requiring mask usage where it is not already required by state or local mandate
• Using signage and decals to help customers effectively practice social distancing
• Cleaning and disinfecting malls during the day, and after-hours, with a sharp focus on high-touch, high-traffic surfaces.
• Using a stronger disinfectant when available
• Offering hand sanitizer at designated stations
• Providing wipes for strollers as supplies last
• Closing play areas out of an abundance of caution, and to protect our smallest customers
• Turning off drinking fountains
• Removing or resetting furniture to respect social distancing
• Removing trays from our food courts to reduce the number of high-touch surfaces
• Temporarily pausing valet in most markets

For more information on Taubman’s holiday programs, visit our mall websites.

About Taubman

Taubman Centers is an S&P MidCap 400 Real Estate Investment Trust engaged in the ownership, management and/or leasing of 26 regional, super-regional and outlet malls in the U.S. and Asia. Taubman’s U.S.-owned properties are the most productive in the publicly held U.S. mall industry. Founded in 1950, Taubman is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Taubman Asia, founded in 2005, is headquartered in Hong Kong. www.taubman.com.

For ease of use, references in this press release to “Taubman Centers,”, “we”, “us”, “our”, “company,” “Taubman” or an operating platform mean Taubman Centers, Inc. and/or one or more of a number of separate, affiliated entities. Business is actually conducted by an affiliated entity rather than Taubman Centers, Inc. itself or the named operating platform.

This press release contains certain “forward-looking” statements as that term is defined by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements that are predictive in nature, that depend on or relate to future events or conditions, or that include words such as “believes”, “anticipates”, “expects”, “may”, “will”, “would,” “should”, “estimates”, “could”, “intends”, “plans” or other similar expressions are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from those projected or contemplated in the forward-looking statements as a result of, but not limited to, the following factors: the COVID-19 pandemic and related challenges, risks and uncertainties which have had, and may continue to have, direct and indirect adverse impacts on the general economy, mall environment, tenants, customers, and employees, as well as mall and tenant operations (including the ability to remain open) and operating procedures, occupancy, anchor and mall tenant sales, sales-based rent, rent collection, leasing and negotiated rents, mall development and redevelopment activities and the fair value of assets (increasing the likelihood of future impairment charges); future economic performance, including stabilization and recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; savings due to cost-cutting measures; payments of dividends and the sufficiency of cash to meet operational needs; changes in market rental rates; unscheduled closings or bankruptcies of tenants; relationships with anchor tenants; trends in the mall industry; challenges with department stores; changes in consumer shopping behavior, including accelerated trends resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic; the liquidity of real estate investments; Taubman’s ability to comply with debt covenants; the availability and terms of financings; changes in market rates of interest and foreign exchange rates for foreign currencies; changes in value of investments in foreign entities; the ability to hedge interest rate and currency risk; risks related to acquiring, developing, expanding, leasing and managing properties; competitors gaining economies of scale through M&A and consolidation activity; changes in value of investments in foreign entities; risks related to joint venture properties; insurance costs and coverage; security breaches that could impact Taubman’s information technology, infrastructure or personal data; costs associated with response to technology breaches; the loss of key management personnel; shareholder activism costs and related diversion of management time; terrorist activities; maintaining Taubman’s status as a real estate investment trust; changes in the laws of states, localities, and foreign jurisdictions that may increase taxes on the company’s operations; changes in global, national, regional and/or local economic and geopolitical climates; the outcome of any litigation between Taubman and Simon Property Group, Inc. (“Simon”) related to the proposed transactions between Taubman and Simon, including the litigation in the State of Michigan Circuit Court for the Sixth Judicial Circuit (Oakland County); the outcome of any shareholder litigation related to the proposed transactions, and insurance coverage for liabilities of Taubman or its directors, if any, thereunder; the inability to complete the proposed transactions due to the failure to satisfy any conditions to completion of the proposed transactions; the risk that a condition to closing of the transaction may not be satisfied; Simon’s and Taubman’s ability to consummate the transaction; the possibility that the anticipated benefits from the transaction will not be fully realized; the ability of Taubman to retain key personnel and maintain relationships with business partners pending the consummation of the transaction; and the impact of legislative, regulatory and competitive changes and other risk factors relating to the industry in which Taubman operates, as detailed from time to time in Taubman’s reports filed with the SEC. There can be no assurance that the transaction will in fact be consummated.

Additional information about these factors and about the material factors or assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements may be found under Item 1.A in Taubman’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, as amended, and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Taubman cautions that the foregoing list of important factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to the proposed transaction, shareholders and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the proposed transaction or other matters attributable to Taubman or any other person acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referenced above. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this communication or the date otherwise specified herein. Taubman does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available or other events occur in the future, except as may be required by law.