Elk Grove Promenade on sales block before it is even open?

Chicago based mall developer rumored to be selling several properties to pay off mounting debt

According to a story in today’s online edition of the Baltimore Sun, Chicago based General Growth is said to be considering the sale of several of its mall properties as it fends off wolves at the door, also known as creditors.

Chicago-based General Growth Properties is looking to sell or find equity partners for several of its 200 properties throughout the nation as it faces looming debt and mortgages that need to be refinanced in the coming months, analysts said.

The company told The Wall Street Journal in April that it was trying to pay off $27 billion in debt and was approaching pension funds and life insurance firms as partners.

"They have a lot of debt coming in the next several months," said David Fick, a retail analyst for Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore. "It's a very challenging time. Their entire focus right now is de-leveraging the company and reducing debt - selling off assets and pieces of the company."

General Growth is the developer of the long anticipated Elk Grove Promenade.

In recent months the Promenade has seen it's opening delayed until the third quarter of 2009 and the pool of prospective high-end fashion anchor tenants dwindle.

Could the credit crisis that is presumed to punch General Growth in the face the reason the opening has been stalled and why anchor tenants are not signing up? Is it possible the ‘mall’ will have new owners even before it opens and if it does, what are the implications?

It is hard to say what General Growth's credit crunch means for the Promenade and the city of Elk Grove. Perhaps the decision to build the mall and then allow it to be an open-air venue, complete with the much ballyhooed outdoor fireplaces could become an issue in this fall's election.