Just three days prior to pulling the trigger on the sale of three malls for $981 million, real estate investment trust Mills Corp. quietly fired its president Mark D. Ettenger effective Aug. 11, according to an Aug. 15 SEC filing. The move is part of a major restructuring at Mills, which is suffering through a myriad of problems that include accounting probes, a shortage of cash as well as a $5 million charge the company will take related to the sale of its European operations. As part of that restructuring, the company has cut more than 220 full-time employees. Seeing the ship sinking, former chief operating officer Kenneth Parent left the company in April 2006 followed by a departure by executive vice president James Napoli in July. Analyts have also expressed concern over the large size and cost of Mills' Xanadu entertainment and retail development under construction at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The budget for that project is expected to jump to $2 billion from $1.2 billion putting Mills in financial jeopardy. Investors are, accordingly, escaping the stock , where it is currently sitting at its 52-week low of $13.87 — Gerald Magpily
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