GGP’s fall ignites talk of Foothills future

FORT COLLINS – One of the very first victims of what we’re calling Black September, a credit hemorrhage that bled freely into October, was the huge real estate investment trust General Growth Properties that owns Foothills Mall in Fort Collins.

As if plans for redevelopment of the decades-old and out-of-style retail center weren’t already cloudy after would-be rescuer Dillard’s department store nixed a Foothills plan earlier this year, they are even murkier after the sudden, steep plunge of General Growth’s value.

Shares in GGP, the nation’s second largest shopping mall owner with more that 200 properties, were worth about five bucks as…