Citi Moves to Foreclose on Mall

Citigroup Inc. and two other lenders have filed court papers to foreclose on General Growth Properties Inc.'s Oakwood Center mall in New Orleans, which has a $95 million mortgage that came due Monday and wasn't paid.

A foreclosure on Oakwood could cause some of General Growth's other lenders to demand immediate payment of their loans, though it wasn't clear Friday if that would occur.

The mall owner already faces numerous past-due debts and payment deadlines, including a deadline at 5 p.m. EDT Friday for holders of $2.25 billion in bonds, some of them past due, to agree to refrain from demanding payment this year. If General Growth fails to get enough bondholders to consent, which it likely won't know until this weekend, it might need to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

General Growth, which owns more than 200 U.S. malls, already has more than $1 billion in debt that is past due, though the lenders haven't demanded immediate payment. Another $4 billion could be called due if those lenders so choose.

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If General Growth files for bankruptcy-law protection, it would rank among the largest real-estate bankruptcies in U.S. history.