News and Events
Mall Owner Struggling With Its Mortgage Bills
President and CEO Ivan Friedman talks to The New York Times about General Growth Properties.
Dec 7, 2008 The New York Times Nate Schweber
Katherine Eklund was at Willowbrook Mall last week, where she was getting holiday photos of her daughters, Julia Gerbino, 5, and Catherine Gerbino, 2. Ms. Eklund said she had no idea that the owners of the mall, General Growth Properties, the second-largest shopping mall owners in the United States, were having financial problems. But she said she was not surprised.
Ms. Eklund, 42, of Short Hills, who frequents this mall for the Bloomingdale's store and the GapKids, figured the mall owner was in the same boat as many others in these dire times.
"I would just say it's the economy," she said. "I see it everywhere."
General Growth, a Chicago-based company that owns four New Jersey malls, including Paramus Park, Bridgewater Commons and Woodbridge Center in addition to Willowbrook, recently announced that it has hired bankruptcy lawyers. It owns 225 malls in 44 states.