Mall giant Simon Property has revised its bid for General Growth Properties, owner of the mall in Columbia, Towson Town Center, White Marsh Mall, Harbor Place and numerous other Baltimore-area malls. General Growth bought Columbia-based Rouse Co., a few years ago, taking on huge amounts of debt that set the stage for its bankruptcy filing.
So the bidding war against a group led by Brookfield Asset Management proceeds. Simon added new investors that would put down another $1.1 billion. Maybe equally important, Simon has brought in other investors in what the WSJ describes as an effort to head off the antitrust cops. Simon says it would take only two board seats on General Growth instead of the three it had wanted. Still, the deal would represent an alliance between two mall behemoths that still ought to trouble the Justice Department if it gets signed. If the Simon bid goes through, count at least on some divestitures of some of the GGP properties.
The tenants in General Growth's Baltimore area malls, however, are probably less interested in who wins that battle than that the battle be over. General Growth's takeover of Rouse led to what tenants say is neglect of some of the malls, and the bankruptcy has distracted the company further. The best outcome for tenants is for the drama to end soon.