News this week of the demise of Taubman Centers, Inc. has me thinking a lot of thoughts, none particularly cogent. First, I feel bad for the 105 people who will lose their jobs starting in January, according to this Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice. I will give the Taubman family the benefit of the doubt that they care about their unemployees, but if I were one — an employee, not a Taubman — the thank you from CEO Robert would give me cold comfort:

"...With this transition, Billy and I look forward to being significant Simon shareholders for many years to come."

Second, malls are strange. I went to one today to return my daughter’s sweater and get my wife’s jeans shortened. (She already had them shortened, but when we got them back she said they hadn’t shortened them, but that they only needed to be shortened two inches instead of three, but then the lady at the store said they had actually been shortened, but that there would be no charge to shorten them two more inches.) 

The entire time I was there, The Twelve Days of Christmas was playing. This either means that I got in and out pretty quickly or they were playing some extended cut of the song to sell more partridges. 

Third, I feel a compelling, if generally unwarranted connection to Al Taubman. When he passed away 10 years ago, I downloaded his book and spent the day going to places in an around Detroit that had his name or fingerprints on them:

Jewfro: Crossing The Threshold With Al Taubman

I reread my column last night … it’s pretty good! I hope my posthumous (and possibly humorous) time with Taubman didn’t offend anyone from his family, except maybe Robert. I remember our day together vividly; I came away with an appreciation for the outsize impact Taubman had on our community and world.

Ten years is a long time — at least it used to be — and even then, there was so much more to explore. So, in the spirit of the season, here are my Twelve Daze of Taubman, unless it turns out that twelve is too many:

1. Booked. I have since inherited a proper copy of Threshold Resistance: The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailing Pioneer. The hardcover would be a substantial upgrade from the Kindle edition at any rate, but this one has my grandpa’s name (in my grandma’s handwriting) on the inside cover, followed by what appears to a signature and self-portrait by the author.

2. Covered. While I’m the last guy to judge a book by its cover, I can’t help but observe that the blurb has an odd Websters-defines quality to it:

“Theshhold Resistance is the physical and psychological barrier that stands between a shopper and the inside of a store.” 

In 2007, Malcolm Gladwell was arguably at the height of his cultural influence, so it was probably worth it to pull the explainer quote from his 2004 New Yorker piece. Its unclear whether Gladwell read the book — and Taubman almost definitely did not know his grandpa.

3. Simon. In the penultimate chapter of the the book, Taubman writes about the attempted hostile takeover of Taubman Centers, Inc. while he was incarcerated: “The battle got very ugly. Simon and their attorneys threw every conceivable strategy at the wall — except offering fair value— to negate my family’s voting shares and eliminate a formidable competitor.”

In the final chapter, Coming Home, he recalls a subsequent encounter with the man behind the failed coup at a mutual friend’s party in Manhattan. 

“David Simon approached me with his hand extended. I didn’t stand up or shake his hand. But I did offer this special holiday greeting: ‘You’re a stupid little asshole.’”

4. Simon®. INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Simon®, a real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership of premier shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use destinations, today announced that it has closed on the acquisition of the remaining 12% interest in The Taubman Realty Group Limited Partnership ("TRG") which it did not own in exchange for 5.06 million limited partnership units in Simon Property Group L.P. 

5. RenCen. With recent headlines like “GM headquarters complex becomes ‘ghost town’ ahead of January move,” it appears Ford should have taken Taubman’s advice 50 years ago:

“Unfortunately, even General Motors can't move the Renaissance Center off the river a few blocks, where it should have been built in the first place. My friend Henry Ford II was the driving force behind the development of the RenCen in the 1970s. I was one of the city's lone voices in opposition to the project's location and design. I remember driving by the construction site one day with Henry. He wanted my advice on some last-minute design issues. 

“‘Henry,’ I said, ‘fill in the hole.’ The massive towers, as impressive as they are, stand in isolation from the city's central business district, blocking access to the river and diminishing the opportunity for residential development along the water.”

6. Riverfront. Taubman reflected “If Detroit is going to be able to attract residents downtown, it must look to the riverfront for regionally competitive housing. The Riverfront Apartments, which Max Fisher and I helped develop in the early 1980s, may not have been my best real estate investment. But it laid some of the groundwork for Detroit’s exciting Riverwalk initiative … The suburbs don’t have a comparable amenity, and it is absolutely essential that we reclaim the riverfront from its industrial past.”

It is hard to overstate the transformation of the Riverfront, most recently with the opening of Ralph C. Wilson Centennial Park. If/when the crews fill in the holes on two of the RenCen towers, it will “set the stage for a new public space … that connects to the Detroit Riverwalk.”

7. Retail. There’s a parallel universe where, instead of the shiny new, Hudson’s Detroit, there’s … Hudson’s. But for a “misguided young architect” and “some equally misguided preservationists in Washington” Taubman had JC Penny and Lord & Taylor lined up to anchor Cadillac Square, the centerpiece of which would have been Hudson’s. Instead, “Hudson’s and the city’s downtown retail vitality were cheated out of a second lease on life.”

As radically as retail has changed everywhere, I have to think that Taubman would be impressed with the stores that have cropped up downtown.  

I don’t imagine we will grieve Taubman the company the way that we did Taubman the man. Hopefully, Taubman’s former employees will land on their feet and we can all share Al’s enduring optimism in the year ahead:

“At my age, I don’t buy green bananas. But I’m still taking the long view, looking at things and thinking how to make them both different and better … The attitude is that you’re alive and you’re better than you ever were. You’re smarter, and you’re better than you ever were. Don’t think of yourself as old. You’re experienced.”