Five O' Clock Shadow

Yesterday I warned that commercial real estate giant General Growth Propeties was on the brink of bankruptcy. Over at Calculated Risk, we learn that GGP indeed has a deadline...

...of 5 PM today.

In addition to watching for bank failures this afternoon, the 2nd largest mall owner in the U.S. - General Growth Properties - is facing a significant deadline:

From the WSJ: General Growth Shakes Up Executive Ranks

[General Growth's] most critical deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, when it hopes the majority of its bondholders will have agreed to refrain from demanding payment this year on $2.25 billion in bonds. If that effort fails, General Growth says it might need to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Watch GGP on this one closely. Odds are pretty good a mall in your area and the jobs it provides are at stake. Should the company go bankrupt, who knows if they will be able to continue operations at all. Most likely they will...but almost certainly underperforming malls are going to have to close as a result, and this company owns scores of malls that employ tens of thousands of people in total.