Macerich Co. executives on a Nov. 1 earnings call said the cloud of existential dread and weak sales productivity hanging over retail for the last several quarters is lifting meaningfully.

The mall real estate investment trust garnered praise from analysts for its strong quarterly retail sales performance. The company reported portfolio-wide sales of $707 per square foot in the third quarter, up 7.3% from $659 in the 2017 third quarter, while occupancy hit 95.1%, up 80 basis points from a year ago.

Douglas Healey, executive vice president for leasing, said the conversation with retailers has shifted from traffic concerns to product improvement and consumer services.

"They're talking about their experience," Healey said of retailers. "We're talking about their marketing and the social media and their influencers. So I think it took the successful retailers, the ones that are performing today ... the last couple of years to really reinvent themselves, to figure out how to revise shopping patterns and to figure out the new customer, which is the millennial and the Gen Z. And in doing so, they're performing much better."

On the call, Macerich's management echoed the sentiments of other retail REIT management teams regarding third-quarter earnings and touted the planned Sears store closures as lucrative redevelopment and repositioning opportunities. Macerich counts 21 Sears locations at its centers, with an average size of 150,000 square feet on 10-acre to 20-acre parcels.

"Of the 16 locations that we have ownership positions in, we would estimate our pro rata share of the capital requirements to redevelop those to be in the range of $250 million to $300 million spent over the course of the next three to four years," CFO Thomas O'Hern said.

O'Hern said there is no co-tenancy exposure at 11 of the impacted centers and that such exposure is "immaterial" at the other 10 locations.