The housing bubble that began in 1997 led Lichtenstein to look elsewhere at other real estate opportunities, which included property outside the United States for the first time. In 2000, Lightstone began to invest in retail strips, and subsequently into investing in malls. His first major purchase in retail came in 2002, when he acquired a Prime Retail-run mall for $36.5 million. The outlet mall was based in Puerto Rico and was one of many Prime Retail developments that required redevelopment at the time of purchase. Lichtenstein stated in an interview that outlet malls at the time had become an "out-of-favor stock in an out-of-favor industry".