Name That Company

Back in February, when General Growth Properties announced that they split into two companies, the new GGP company was tentatively called General Growth Opportunities.

I personally thought that name was rather uninspiring.

I was subsequently told by some folks in the know at GGP that this this name was merely a placeholder until a new name could be conjured up. Now, according to this story by Edward Gunts and Larry Carson in The Sun, they have come up with a new placeholder name for the new company, Spinco.

I think I liked GGO better.

Then again why not just resuscitate Howard Research and Development (HRD) and use that?

The story also shed a little more light on what properties would stay part of GGP and what properties would constitute the holdings of “Spinco.”

“Gregory F. Hamm, Columbia's general manager and a General Growth vice president, said the Mall in Columbia, the big box Gateway Overlook center on Route 175 and a series of older office buildings south of Columbia's mall would also be property of the new General Growth. However, Merriweather Post Pavilion, General Growth's regional headquarters on Little Patuxent Parkway and other lakefront property would go to Spinco, Hamm said.”

This could potentially complicate some of the Town Center redevelopment plans. The mall and the surrounding office buildings occupy approximately a third of the Town Center areas. The proposed plans have included transforming the malls massive parking fields into a combination of residential and retail areas with a grid street pattern and structured parking. The concept plans also call for the demolition of at least one of the office buildings that will now be owned by a separate company.

Of course it remains in GGPs best interest to work this out with the yet to be named new entity so perhaps this really isn’t that big of a deal, just more work for the lawyers.