General Growth Properties, the second-largest shopping mall owner in the country which operates South Street Seaport, has filed a $9.7 billion mortgage loan restructuring plan in bankruptcy court, a move that could inch the troubled company closer to removing 166 of its malls from bankruptcy protection. Speculation has abounded that the company could exit bankruptcy protection by the end of the year — if the plan is confirmed Dec. 15, the group could accomplish this goal. Still, General Growth Properties has $11.7 billion in debt to account for, and must reach pacts with lenders for that debt before it’s out of the woods. “We will continue to work with our other secured mortgage lenders and are hopeful that we will reach additional consensual agreements quickly,” Thomas Nolan, COO of General Growth, said.

General Growth Properties, the second-largest mall owner in the U.S., which operates New York City’s South Street Seaport, has reached a deal with its lenders to extend loans, a move that will allow it to exit bankruptcy by 2010. Representatives from 70 of General Growth’s loans, some of which exceeded $1 billion in value, agreed to extensions averaging six years. The Chicago-based company’s financial woes, marking the biggest real estate failure in U.S. history, according to a report from Reuters, have underscored the nationwide retail crisis, as vacancies in the retail real estate sector have continued to mount as the holiday season approaches.