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When General Growth Properties Inc. sought Chapter 11 protection last month, it took a step its biggest debt holders had believed was impossible: It took 166 of its malls into bankruptcy with it. The surprised debt holders had believed the malls would be insulated from the parent's bankruptcy because of the way General Growth had structured the assets. General Growth's action has rattled investors throughout the $700 billion market for securities backed by commercial mortgages, or CMBS. Investors in other deals had also figured their investment was insulated from a parent company's bankruptcy. Now they're worried that General Growth's move...

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman didn't have a column in yesterday's paper. Was it because the company that his wife's fortune is invested in went bankrupt last week, and he's too sad to type? General Growth Properties filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, which is notable because it's one of the nation's largest mall operators, with 200 malls in 44 states—the Times called the company's failure "one of the biggest commercial real estate collapses in United States history." It's also notable because Friedman's wife, Ann Bucksbaum Friedman, is an heir to the family that founded GGP, and her family still...

CBS) The recession has already taken its toll on retailers across the country. Now shopping malls themselves are in big trouble. One of the largest mall owners in this country filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday. General Growth Properties, which owns more than 200 malls, is more than $27 billion in debt - another sign that the meltdown in residential real estate is now spreading to the commercial sector as well, as CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports. From New York's South Street Seaport, to the 100-store Fanieul Hall in Boston, to the Lincolnshire Mall in Chicago, shoppers are apparently...

General Growth Properties, owner of premier malls such as Tysons Galleria in McLean, filed the largest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history Thursday, but analysts say the move is not a sign of retail Armageddon. General Growth, like many homeowners, paid top dollar in a rush to buy properties earlier in the decade and now finds itself awash in debt with its asset values shrinking.

General Growth Properties Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection to reorganize. General Growth listed $29.5 billion in total assets and about $27.3 billion of debts in its bankruptcy petition, making it the largest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history. Chicago-based General Growth (NYSE: GGP), whose shopping mall holdings include Coronado Center, New Mexico's largest enclosed mall, said in an announcement Thursday that it had sought bankruptcy protection only after being unable to refinance or extend maturing debt. The company said all day-to-day operations and business of its shopping malls would continue as usual while it reorganizes. General...