Mega Malls in trouble: No surprise to me.

[jazzjunkysue]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/General-Growth-files-for-rb-14945510.html

General Growth files largest U.S. real estate bankruptcy

Thursday April 16, 2009, 12:17 pm EDT

By Ilaina Jonas and Emily Chasan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Growth Properties Inc, the second-largest U.S. mall owner, declared bankruptcy on Thursday in the biggest real estate failure in U.S. history.

Ending months of speculation, General Growth, along with 158 of its 200-plus U.S. malls, filed Chapter 11 while it tries to refinance its debts.

But the ongoing global financial crisis made it impossible for General Growth to restructure outside of bankruptcy and could signal further troubles for other financial institutions who are General Growth creditors.

The collapse underscores the pressure on U.S. commercial real estate with few sources of available funding.

Chicago-based General Growth, which owns such valuable properties as South Street Seaport in New York, Fashion Show in Las Vegas and Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, listed total assets of $29.56 billion and total debts of $27.29 billion.

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I've always resented these hulking cement cities for emptying out our main streets and adding a middle man to the cost of doing business: Mall rent is criminally high, pushing out all local businesses.

Have you ever seen a local small business that could make the rent for more than a few months in a mall? I mean, other than a tiny shoe repair closet?

So, they put our small businesses out of work and then fold up, leaving these ugly cement hulks littering our suburbs.

The europeans are smarter than us: They limit these nasty imposters and keep their inner cities thriving and their main streets open.