Move Over General Growth

2010, 2011 and 2012 will present huge challenges to the commercial real estate industry. A rolling stone gathers no moss and a rolling loan gathers no loss. The write downs and defaults are being pushed forward...this will no longer be possible in the next few years as the biggest losers destroy commercial lenders' balance sheets and get sent back to the FED.

The impact is not limited to the United States. Dubai's Five-Star Ghost Town at the End of 'The World' is a stark reminder that we are not alone.

Deserted Shopping Mall Bleak Symbol of Fed Bailout

By Alister Bull

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A $29 billion trail from the Federal Reserve's bailout of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns ends in a partially deserted shopping center on a bleak spot on the south side of Oklahoma City.

The Fed now owns the Crossroads Mall, a sprawling shopping complex at the junction of Interstate highways 244 and 35, complete with an oil well pumping crude in the parking lot -- except the Fed does not own the mineral rights.

The Fed finds itself in the unusual situation of being an Oklahoma City landlord after it lent JPMorgan Chase $29 billion to buy Bear Stearns last year.

That money was secured by a portfolio of Bear assets. Crossroads Mall is the only bricks and mortar acquired through bailout. The remaining billions are tied up in invisible securities spread across hundreds, if not thousands, of properties.

It is hard to be precise because the Fed has not published specifics on what it now owns. The only reason that Crossroads Mall has surfaced is that it went into foreclosure in April.

Noah Diggs, who had just successfully concluded a search for work here as a shop assistant, was surprised and somewhat alarmed to learn the U.S. central bank now owned the property.

"That is a bad thing, right?" he said, surveying the empty parking lot on a rainy morning in early October.

Public anger over the bailout of rich Wall Street bankers has evolved into wider opposition toward government intrusion into the private sector, complicating President Barack Obama's efforts to reform financial regulation and healthcare.

The controversial action to save Bear Stearns in March 2008 was defended as less damaging for the U.S. economy than letting it fail. The merit of this argument was underscored in September 2008 when rival investment bank Lehman Brothers foundered, sparking a global financial panic.

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