Five Stocks That Look Completely Worthless
Matthew Coffina
Wednesday
November 12, 2008, 7:00 am EST
General Growth Properties (NYSE:GGP - News)From the Analyst Report:
"Punch-drunk on easy credit, retail real estate investment trust (REIT) General
Growth Properties is now staggering under the weight of its massive debt load.
Raising capital or finding buyers for its commercial real estate assets may be
difficult in the current credit-constrained environment, so we think it's likely
that General Growth's equity value will fall to $0."
Yikes.
So General Growth's bad decision making is putting our community in jeopardy. It's time our community looks to the future, to smart growth decisions that will never hold us hostage to this kind of incompetence again.
5 comments:
There are two sides to every story. Dundee Neighbors are slanted to their opinion and there opinion only. As a result of their suit against the village, Wal-Mart and General Growth the construction is delayed.
Dundee needs the Wal-Mart. We all use this retailer especially now with the economy being what it is. Why give tax revenue to Crystal Lake, South Elgin or Algonquin.
Read the paper, Dundee is considering a tax increase and the possibility of reduced services that we as a community have taken for granted, left pickup, trash and yard waste.
Several residents don't want to see any commercial property across from Tartens Glen. Many of us in the village want Wal-Mart.
More residents in favor of Wal-Mart need to attend Monday night board meetings to see where the village is being forced to go in light of declining revenues.
West Dundee has mismanaged growth in our community for the past ten years. Case in point Spring Hill Mall. The mall has been in decline for a number of years and did the village work with the mall to bring in top tier retailers? That answer would be NO.
The short sightedness of the village board has lead to the destruction of our village. The village and it's manager thought the golden goose would always be around – the mall. They are only interested in generating revenue to feed its appetite for more government and expanding services that can and should be privatized. For example does a village of less than 10,000 people need a community officer that drives an SUV around all day or a new 100K John Deere tractor?
Which leads me to the Daley style of city management, if the taxpayers of the village voted down the home sales tax in the last election, lets threaten/punish them with a property tax increase for not bending to our will.
The village board and manager can’t control their appetite to spend money, and they should learn to live within a budget. (West Dundee residents must gather at the next board meeting when this topic is to be discussed and voice our opinion that they must reduce expenses and/or cut headcount, like every other organization.) The people of West Dundee are not a cash machine for inept village management. The village will threaten residents about cut backs in services, mainly the police and fire, as a scare tactic to push their agenda, but don’t be fooled. Make the village work for its residence.
Does the village need a Wal-Mart? If you want increased traffic congestion and more crime then build away. I sat through a village meeting where the police chief presented his findings on crime rates related to Wal-Mart by calling other chiefs that have Wal-Mart’s in their towns. Funny thing is he never talked about the Wal-Mart in Elgin on Randall Road. Maybe, he did selective polling for results that would make a better sell to the community. He then talked about no increase in force to police the new Wal-Mart.
The other day at the mall I saw two West Dundee police cars by Macy’s and when I left an hour later they were still there, so much for protecting the citizens of West Dundee.
More to come….
I agree that we need the Wal-Mart in West Dundee. Especially now that the mall is dying. Maybe GGP should consider doing what Randhurst did by turning it into a Lifestyle Mall or just lowering their lease rates and turning it into some kind of a health/beauty mall. They could also lease space to Harper college. I would love to see some type of educational facility in that area. The village needs to give some kind of incentive in order for retailers or others to want to actually BE in the mall area.
Good idea to put our community trust in a company that will most likely file for bankruptcy by the end of the year - stock is trading at $.50 cents. Can't even buy a candy bar for $.50 cents!
In the same vein, lets get GM or Ford to make Spring Hill Mall an auto plant!
Just what we need another lifestyle mall. Algonquin and Barrington aren't close enough for you.
As the economy sinks people are not going to spend money on nail and spa treatments. Are those the type of businesses you really think are going to plug a mismanaged deficit of 300k+?
I think it's too late for us to argue about having a mall. It's here and West Dundee made the decision to put it in a long time ago. So, if we are going to keep a mall here, we need to focus on making it a success.
Randhurst mall (in Mt. Prospect) is now a success, although it wasn't at one time. It was as decrepit as Springhill is, without the gang violence, of course. However, according to Joe Cavallaro, who wrote me a long letter in response to this issue, Randhurst's mall's owners took it upon themselves to make improvements. I don't quite remember it that way. I remember receiving updates from the Village that explained the role of Mt. Prospect in the clean-up (offering tax incentives, etc.) The mall owners also selected stores, such as Costco, to lure shoppers from other towns, like Arlington Heights, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, etc.
Springhill Mall will not survive by just having West Dundee shop there. I think people need to get beyond that, especially in light of the fact that there is so much competition from Randall Road. What we need is a way to bring back shoppers from other towns, such as Algonquin, Gilberts, LITH, even Hoffman Estates. Putting in a store such as Wal-mart won't really bring back those shoppers. They'll just go to the one that makes the most logistical sense.
However, putting in stores that aren't located on Randall Road or are further away for people, makes much more sense.
Wal-mart has discount items. For the writer who sarcastically suggested an auto dealership, I honestly don't think Wal-mart is a much better solution than an auto dealership. Both are pretty tacky.
GG has let the mall fall into disrepair, but West Dundee OK'd them to set up shop here in the first place. Algonquin is requiring their businesses to stay 5 years before leaving, otherwise they will face penalties. Certainly, if West Dundee had more business savvy, they would have set up clauses in their agreement.
I think we're seeing a very old school of thought in how West Dundee gets managed and that's what the real problem is. New folks have arrived, and are expected something a little more progressive. Stores need to be kept up and well managed, and it would be nice to keep some of the open space. Many people want a small town atmosphere. When you have a mall in the middle of town, can you really keep it small town? I think the downtown is for specialty shops and that will preserve the small town feel, which is important to the identity of West Dundee. However, the mall is for bringing in the bucks. It's the reality. To me, putting in a Costco, like what Randhurst Mall did, is the right first move. It's products are considered very good quality and the nearest one is in LITH and gets crowded. It will also eliminate the concern for gang violence. If they could add Costco as one of the main anchors (like where Steve and Barry's is - aren't they closing?) to the mall, it would eliminate any extra building in the open space area.
I think West Dundee would have shown vision if they would have enlisted the help of a professional planner to help design a short-term and long-term plan that supported a well-thoughtout concept. Instead, what I am seeing is unoriginal, lazy, and quick fix solutions. And if that is how they are making decisions, it will only add to the cheap, trinkity appearance that the mall is currently cultivating.
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