It’s ironic, muses Jim Higgins, how supposedly savvy investors in commercial real estate have been so slow to differentiate between a couple of very basic types of retail. There’s a big difference between shopping malls and shopping centers, he notes, and while Real Estate Investment Trust equities related to these property types have both traded down an average of 40 to 50 percent over the last 18 months, some elements of the latter have significant return potential.