MIAMI—Equity One has seen some shakeup in its executive ranks lately. And it's not over yet.

The shopping center owner, developer and operator just announced plans to streamline its organizational structure to drive efficiencies and faster decision making and lower operating costs. Practically speaking that means all leasing and property management functions will report to the new COO, Michael Makinen. We'll get to what else it means in a minute.

Makinen comes to Equity from Olshan Properties, where he also served as COO. Olshan was formerly known as Mall Properties, and is a privately-owned real estate company with a portfolio of over 16 million square feet of retail, residential, and office properties.