Rebound Time

Jerrell M. Davis knows he has a long, hard climb ahead in turning around the struggling DeSoto Square Mall in Bradenton. Maybe not as tough a proverbial hill as he faced when he was a U.S. Army colonel in Vietnam, but a tough slog nonetheless.

Pummeled by vacancies, crime that has at times seeped into the Bradenton mall's expansive parking lot and heightened competition from the gleaming $315 million Mall at University Town Center a short drive away, DeSoto Square has lost its luster in recent years.

Simon Property Group, the nation's largest mall owner and one of the sector's most sophisticated operators, bailed on the 678,000-square-foot mall following last decade's recession when the property's debt exceeded its value.