General Growth: A Good Time to Sell?

The news that mall-owner General Growth Properties is looking to sell off its assets isn’t surprising, given its highly publicized debt issues. We’ve also heard rumors that the REIT has had layoffs at its Chicago headquarters.But is now the best time for the company to try to do this with all of the financial turmoil going on? Granted, GGP owns several impressive shopping centers that could fetch a lot of money…during better times. But those aren’t the only assets in its 200-mall portfolio, which includes several, well, “normal” malls.One article we read mentioned Simon Property Group as a possible candidate to acquire some of these properties. But would that huge firm even want to take on a sizable chunk of GGP’s portfolio right now? We haven’t exactly seen anyone make huge transactions in the retail sectors lately.What do you think the future brings for GGP?