Jacksonville Landing project dead

[mtraininjax]

Malls don't work anymore, and I don't think mini-malls ever did.

Malls are dying, the largest ones are teetering on default.

America's shopping malls are dying...

Last week, one of the country's largest commercial real estate investment trusts ("REITs") – General Growth Properties (GGP) – defaulted on its $144 million loan on suburban Detroit's Lakeside Mall.

  Unfortunately, Lakeside's story isn't an unusual one...

The mall's 1.5 million square feet contain about 120 retailers. Like many low- and mid-range malls, it's anchored by a number of familiar (and struggling) department stores like JC Penney, Macy's, and Sears. And it features a number of familiar (and struggling) niche retailers like...
•     Teen clothing store Aéropostale, which filed for bankruptcy in May.
   
•     Surf-lifestyle clothing store Pacific Sunwear, which filed for bankruptcy in April.
   
•     And jewelry and trinket seller Claire's, which saw its CEO resign in May and currently has $2.4 billion in debt trading at distressed levels. Claire's new CEO previously headed up bookseller Borders, which filed for bankruptcy in February 2011.

Online retailers – as well as top-tier malls that cater to the wealthy – are squeezing out malls like Lakeside. Meanwhile, a big wave of additional shopping-center debt is coming due soon. As Bloomberg reported...

About $47.5 billion of loans backed by retail properties are set to mature over the next 18 months, data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch show. That's coinciding with a tighter market for commercial-mortgage backed securities, where many such properties are financed.

If the city has anyone leading this discussion, it would be wise to let Sleiman deal with his own mess, his own financing and see how it plays out.

[thelakelander]

What was rob middleton's op ed piece?

[thelakelander]

^Oh that. Ok. Seemed like Rob has come to the conclusion of many others have figured out decades ago. I mean, seriously, how many continuous decades has this city been talking about revitalizing downtown now?  I'm losing track.