(Ian Ritter GlobeSt.com/RETAIL

ARLINGTON, VA-Mills Corp.'s directors are considering the sale of all or part of the company, keeping in line with the predictions of some industry observers that have followed the firm's woes. Meanwhile, the locally based REIT will also lay off 77 employees in a move forecast to save it $1.2 million in this year's first quarter.

Mill's troubles were made public, for the most part, last year when third-quarter NOI fell 5.2%, to $104.7 million, from the same year-ago period, while FFO dropped 53.6%, to $0.45 per share. Those plunges were due, in part, to a variety of charges taken on in regard to projects in the company's pipeline and failure to collect some rents.

The company, which owns 42 retail properties in the US and Europe, was contacted by the SEC in January and is now restating earnings from 2000 to the first three quarters of last year. Now, the company's executives have announced that they do not plan to file an annual report by their March 16 deadline and gave no specific date when they expect to file any financial documents.