Due Date

Today is the deadline for the $900 million debt obligation that General Growth has been attempting to renegotiate. According to this story by Alejandro Lazo in today’s Washington Post, “General Growth was also working yesterday to negotiate with the lender of a separate, $58 million loan. In the Nov. 10 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Sec, the company said weakness in the retail and credit markets cast doubt on its ability to refinance its loans or obtain capital.”

Things are looking pretty bleak in the local office of GGP too. This week they had an across the board layoff of some long time local employees who had previously survived the transition from The Rouse Company to General Growth. That’s a pretty sour way to end a year.

There may some hope for GGP though. In his market newsletter, Seeking Alpha, Todd Sullivan wrote, “…General Growth (GGP) is in a tight spot. But, with Citi (C) taking a 5% stake, the debt is all but assured to be refinanced.”

Unfortunately, this news will be of little solace to those who find themselves cleaning out their desks today at 10275 Little Patuxent Parkway.

UPDATE

Columbia Talk has the latest update on the GGP debt refinancing. It looks like they successfully dodged this first bullet.