Whoa. This is really interesting. CEO David Simon was speaking at an industry event yesterday and revealed that Simon tried to buy some General Growth malls before GGP filed for bankruptcy, but was rebuffed. Simon takes a shot at GGP here. General Growth is being persistent in its view that it wants to re-emerge in its current form and does not want to be forced to sell assets–something the industry is dubious about. Here Simon seems to be saying that GGP isn’t being realistic about how bad its situation is. At any rate, this kind of comment could make it harder for Simon and GGP to come to any deals down the road.

“They didn’t realize they were a distressed seller,” Simon said in a panel discussion at the Milken Institute Global Conference today in Beverly Hills, California. Few commercial real estate sales are being completed because sellers aren’t willing to take losses on their investments, Simon said.

From Reuters Shop Talk blog. DDR COO Daniel Hurwitz says some retailers are exaggerating how well they’re doing in getting concessions from landlords and that DDR, for one, has been stingy–only acquiescing on 3 percent of the requests it has received so far. We explored this issue in an online feature about a month ago. I’m not sure how I feel about Hurwitz’s comments here. I know landlords need to maintain NOI, but the fact of the matter is rents have been rising for years and probably got too high at the end of this boom. In an environment where retail sales are collapsing, declining rents make sense. Some retailers may be trying to take advantage of the situation and may not need concessions. That I understand. Other retailers are in so much trouble that they may not make it through this downturn if you give them the relief. But there’s got to be a segment of retailers out there that legitimately requires relief in order to survive now that will thrive later. Is that number 3 percent?

“There is a disconnect between tenants and landlords regarding the number of requests that are actually granted,” he said.

To date, Developers Diversified has received 672 requests for rent relief, rent abatement and rent referrals, with 78 percent of those requests coming from local tenants and the remainder from national tenants.

“Many retailers and their advisers will tell you they are successful in renegotiating the lease terms; however to date, we have granted only 20 rent relief requests, or less than 3% of the total requests received,” Hurwitz said. “The typical concession is for a period of one year and it is generally in the form of a deferred payment.

General Growth has company. Two other commercial real estate firms have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the last two days. First it was developer Opus South. (Of note, Opus Corp. and its other regional affiliates are not part of this filing.) Then, minutes ago Sheldon Good & Co. issued a release saying it is reorganizing.

Places Magazine Blog brings us a firsthand report of retail in London.

Some of the newest players to the street-scape - and familiar to Americans, include the new National Geographic Store on Regent Street. It opened last November and is located on three floors. The store sells a vast range of products from the most basic of travel essentials such as maps and bug spray, to innovative apparel suitable for worldwide expeditions. The store includes a tapas cafe, library and cartography areas, and travel services. More stores are planned in other major European cities.

Abercrombie & Fitch’s store appeared to be booming with business. Located a bit “off” - behind the Royal Academy of Art, on 7 Burlington Gardens, operates with no signage - between Bond Street and close to Savile Row. There is no visible signage on the store. However, its destination shoppers have no trouble finding it - and buying. One does however wonder if a store on Regent Street would have made more sense.

Everyone knows Harrods’s and Harvey Nichols. But Selfridge’s remains one of the best department stores. It has almost everything under one roof and a terrific sales staff to back it up. And Fortnum & Mason is one of a kind - great for gifts, tea, wine, jams, candies and gift items. All of its floors have been very recently remodeled and the dining and tea venues are comfortable and elegant.

The empty husks of some of Circuit City’s box stores will be filled with electronics and appliances again.

P.C. Richard & Son is remodeling former Circuit City store interiors in Brick, Eatontown and East Brunswick. P.C. Richard executives plan to open those stores by the first week in June. They also plan to open stores in abandoned Circuit City stores in New York City and Connecticut. The former Circuit City in Freehold Township is not part of the plan.

“With Circuit’s departure, we picked up Eatontown and Brick,” P.C. Richard & Son President Gregg Richard said. “We’ve been looking down south, and when Circuit (City) went out of business, we were forced to look a little harder — these stores were in great locations so we moved on it.”

Link.

The Wall Street Journal posted a story based on Moody’s Commercial Real Estate Indices pointing out that the declines in values posted to date have now wiped out four years of gains.

The Moody’s/REAL National All Property Type Aggregate Index is out and finds that value of offices, apartments, hotels, warehouses and malls has fallen to March 2005 levels. Remember March 2005? Big news then was Terry Shiavo and the Dow was still solidly above 10,000.

Since then, of course, lots of office buildings have traded hands, mostly with huge amounts of debt. Falling prices hurts landlords with lots of debt. In 2007, for instance, there was $200 billion of issuance of commercial mortgage backed securities. Values are 20% below where they were when that debt was issued.

“Given the extent of price decline, significant potential exists for leveraged properties to have depleted their credit support. In other words, the equity has disappeared,” says Neal Elkin, President of Real Estate Analytics, the firm that produces the index. The index hit 150.63 in February, down 0.6% from the previous month. (100 on the index equals December 2000 prices.)

Auctions aren’t a new thing for real estate. There are a number of firms that specialize in that sort of thing in the commercial real estate sector. However, I don’t know if I’ve heard of any of the auctions being run through the Internet. It adds a whole new twist to the concept of online shopping. The sector overall is not a big fan of internet retailing. ICSC for years has tried to help push legislation enabling taxation of online sales to little avail. However, I think this is the kind of online shopping the industry might get behind. Business Week has the story about a shopping center being sold as part of a live internet auction of 50 properties.

Rolling Acres is going on the Internet auction block.

The mall, which closed in October, when electricity was shut off for nonpayment, will be one of 50 properties offered in a live Internet auction on May 1.

While the mall itself is closed, two remaining anchor stores, J.C. Penney Outlet and Sears, are open. A wholesale company uses the former Target building as a warehouse. None of the outside anchor stores, including the former Macy’s building, are included in the auction.

The Web-based auction “really opens it up to national and international potential interested buyers,” said SACS Consulting President Tim Dimoff, who has been managing the mall and negotiating sale prospects for years for ownership company Invest Commercial LLC in Beverly Hills.

Link.

General Growth has added additional subsidaries, including eight regional malls to its bankruptcy filing. That brings the total of malls in the filing to 166. The updated list of filing properties is here and filing entities is here.

Past links and stories:

• April 17, GGP’s Bankruptcy, Day 2


• April 16, GGP on CNBC


• April 16, Blogging General Growth’s Media Call


• April 16, GGP’s Bankruptcy


• April 15, Rouse CDS Worth 28.25% of the Debt They Insure


• April 14, GGP Bondholders Seek Lawsuit


• April 6, 2009, Strange Action on GGP Stock


• March 31, 2009, GGP Fails to Convince Bondholders, But Avoiding Bankruptcy For Now


• March 23, 2009, GGP Pushes for Another Extension


• March 20, 2009, Citigroup Moves to Foreclose on GGP Mall


• March 20, 2009, GGP’s Lenders Waive Default; REIT Asks for Further Forbearance


• March 10, 2009, GGP Asks for More Time


• March 3, 2009, GGP Reportedly Getting Bids for Properties


• Feb. 24, 2009, GGP Posts Gains But Drops Earnings Call and Estimates


• Feb. 20, 2009, GGP Bankruptcy Scenario


• Feb. 18, 2009, GGP Misses Payments


• Feb. 2, 2009, General Growth Gets Another Extension


• Jan. 5, 2009, GGP Switches Bankruptcy Advisors


• Dec. 30, 2008, GGP Signs Forebearance Agreement


• Dec. 19, 2008, GGP Puts Centers on the Block


• Dec. 18, 2008, General Growth Extension Comes Through


• Dec. 15, 2008, GGP “Continuing its Discussions with Lenders”


• Dec. 14, 2008, Breaking: GGP Refinances


• Dec. 5, 2008, Citi Plays Hardball With GGP


• Dec. 3, 2008, Centro, GGP Find Ways to Hang On


• Dec. 1, 2008, GGP Gets Two Week Extension


• Nov. 25, 2008, Ackman Builds Stake in GGP


• Nov. 20, 2008, General Growth Hires Bankruptcy Advisor


• Nov. 17, 2008, General Growth Downgraded; Feldman to Stop Filing Public Reports


• Nov. 12, 2008, General Growth Roundup


• Nov. 11, 2008, General Growth Warns of Default


• Nov. 5, 2008, GGP, Kimco Fall After Cutting Forecasts


• Nov. 2, 2008, General Growth “Almost Literally Worth Nothing”


• Oct. 17, 2008, Management Changes at GGP


• Oct. 15, 2008, Margin Calls Hit Two More Retail REITs


• Oct. 7, 2008, General Growth Near Bankruptcy?


• Oct. 3, 2008, General Growth CFO Steps Down; Company Suspends Dividend


• Oct. 2, 2008 GGP Under Fire for Inclusion on Short-Sell Ban List


• Oct. 1, 2008, Could General Growth Be Sold?


• Sept. 23, 2008, Short Selling Banned on General Growth


• Sept. 22, 2008, General Growth Strikes Back


• Sept. 16, 2008, General Growth Offers More Recourse


• Aug. 12, 2008, Another Look at GGP’s Debt


• Aug. 6, 2008, Analysis of GGP’s Debt


• July 25, 2008, Stories With Bigger Implications?


• July 14, 2008, GGP Lines Up New Financing


• April 16, 2008, GGP’s Growing Debt Problem

After a series of historic lows, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) was up more than eight points in March. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the March ABI rating was 43.7, up from the 35.3 mark in February. This was the first time since September 2008 that the index was above 40, but the score still indicates an overall decline in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry score was 56.6.

“This news should be viewed with cautious optimism,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “The fact that inquiries for new projects increased is encouraging, but it will likely be a few months before we see an improvement in overall billings. Architects continue to report a diversity of business conditions, but the majority is still seeing weak activity levels.”

Link.

Moody’s published it’s most recent commercial real estate indices. Square feet uploaded the pdf to Scribd, which I’ve copied here. The index shows further declines, not surprisingly. Retail is down 8.5 percent year over year.

Moody’s April 2009 Report