NBA: Mall magnate, Pacers owner Melvin Simon dies at 82
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — A spokesman says billionaire shopping mall magnate and Indiana Pacers co-owner Mel Simon has died at age 82.
Simon Property Group spokesman Les Morris says Simon died Wednesday.
Simon spent nearly 40 years leading what is now Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, the nation's largest shopping mall company.
He and his brother Herb bought the Pacers in 1983 when it looked as if the NBA team would be moved.
Simon also was a Hollywood movie producer in the 1970s and '80s, when he scored a big hit with the raunchy teen comedy "Porky's," but he had many more flops.
Simon's business of building and operating hundreds of suburban shopping malls across the country earned him a fortune that Forbes magazine estimated this year at $1.3 billion.
