General Growth Properties, the company that owns Carolina Place Mall in Pineville filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 siting tough economic times, tightening of credit and high debt levels as its major contributors. The company, the second largest shopping mall owner in the country, was in the process of developing the new 1.3 million-square-foot mall in Mint Hill off of Lawyers road and I-485. The mall was slated to open in the spring of 2007 but for a variety of reasons, including a significant decline in consumer spending, work has been suspended on the project.
This news does not surprise me at all. All along we have been hearing about all the troubles the Charlotte residential real estate market has been having and it was only a matter of time before the commercial markets would follow. When you think about what precipitated all the residential woes, over building (too much supply), over extending (too much debt) and over confidence (too much belief in the consumers ability to continue to spend), it was foreseeable that the commercial markets would have the same problems. The bottom line is that we are going to see more and more of this as the year unfolds and we will need to flush all the residential and commercial problems out before we hit a sustainable bottom.
Ciao Bella
