Faneuil Hall Marketplace operator files for bankruptcy

(File photo: John Tlumacki/Globe staff)

General Growth Properties Inc., the troubled mall company that operates Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston and the Natick Collection mall, said it has filed for bankruptcy protection.

"All day-to-day operations and business of all of the company’s shopping centers and other properties will continue as usual," said a press release from General Growth, which operates about 200 malls.

General Growth said it reluctantly filed for bankruptcy protection after it was unable to reach agreements with its debt holders.

The City of Boston owns Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and General Growth operates it under a lease with the city.

General Growth, a real estate investment trust headquartered in Chicago, has been trying to sell off the Faneuil Marketplace lease to help pay off its debt.

Last month, the city's planning agency, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, claimed that General Growth had defaulted on several of the lease's provisions.

Late last year, merchants at Faneuil Hall Marketplace asked the city to run the outdoor shopping center if General Growth filed for bankruptcy protection.

Carol Troxell of the Faneuil Hall Merchants Association said today that she was not surprised by the bankruptcy protection filing; she said the city and the merchants must move to take more control over the property.

"Now we the merchants must continue to operate in the highest standards that our visitors have known and seen for more than 30 years," she said. "And we will have to take a more visible role to protect the uniqueness that the marketplace has been known for. With the city, we will try to get more control of the implementation of that important vision."

Troxell added: "It’s no secret that the merchants and the management are miles apart in their vision and the importance of the marketplace to the city and its visitors."

Susan Elsbree, a spokeswoman for the BRA, said she could not immediately comment.

David Keating, a spokesman for General Growth, could not be reached for comment.

General Growth recently undertook a major expansion of the Natick Mall and changed the shopping center's name to Natick Collection. Natick Collection's new luxury wing opened just as hard economic times were causing shoppers to cut back on their spending.

To read Globe stories about the company's problems and Faneuil Hall Marketplace, please click here, here, and here. To read the company's press release, please click here.
(By Jenn Abelson and Chris Reidy, Globe staff)