Simon's largest malls in South Florida include Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise and The Galleria at Fort Lauderdale, along with a minority stake in Aventura Mall. General Growth's presence in the region includes Kendall Town Center, Mizner Park in Boca Raton and Pembroke Lakes Mall in Pembroke Pines.

Elsewhere in Florida, both companies have a somewhat fragmented presence. In Orlando, for example, Simon has the Florida Mall and Orlando Premium Outlets, while General Growth has Altamonte Mall and Festival Bay Mall at International Drive.

Simon's biggest malls around the state include Edison Mall in Fort Myers, Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg and Pier Park in Panama City. General Growth dominates middle markets with malls such as Lakeland Square, Governor's Square in Tallahassee and Regency Square Mall in Jacksonville.

Beyond the strategic benefits of purchasing one of its major competitors, Simon would also gain substantial leverage over its tenant base in a South Florida market where landlords are struggling to maintain occupancy and fill vacancies, Godart says.

"Simon has certain assets that national tenants want to be a part of," he says. "They can use [the General Growth acquisition] as leverage to put those tenants in secondary locations as a condition for leasing space in a class A, strong location. This would also allow them to go aggressively after a bunch of different tenants."

The acquisition could also help Simon strengthen its position in a tenant-driven marketplace. The deal would force tenants to evaluate South Florida malls they occupy space in and where they want to be long-term, more than potential short-term issues like rent relief and sales performance, Soble says.

"Tenants will look again at the future of a particular mall and whether they want to stay in it," he says. "A lot of that depends on the strength of the recovery of Florida, which has always been known as a retail state."

Requiring prospective tenants to occupy space in less-desirable shopping malls in order to lease space at higher-quality centers is a commonly used tactic by major retail landlords like Simon, says Edgar Jones, vice president of Rockefeller Group Development Corp. RockGroup is currently building the Miramar Town Center, a mixed-use project, in partnership with retail REIT Kimco Realty, which specializes in shopping centers.

By gaining the leverage to apply the conditional leasing strategy, Simon would be able to significantly boost the value of its entire portfolio, Jones says. That, along with the presumed discount Simon would get on a per-property basis, could put Simon in a position to make some of its properties more competitive with reduced asking rents.

"This lets Simon reset the rents and be more attractive to tenants," Jones says. "This is a big win for Simon that raises the values of all of its properties."

(Carl Cronan of GlobeSt.com contributed to this story.)