General Growth Properties (GGP) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early this morning, as first reported by The New York Times and as announced via press release on GGP’s website. The release states that day to day operations will not be affected by the filing in New York. The New York Times’ blog post also speculates about the company looking to sell off properties to help emerge out of bankruptcy as soon as possible. It is reportedly the largest real estate bankruptcy filing in the nation’s history at $27 billion.

Birmingham’s Century Plaza is on the list of properties included in the filing. GGP also operates the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, however it was not included in the list of properties since the company only serves as a management agent for one of Alabama’s top shopping destinations.

In February it was announced that the last anchor store at Century Plaza, Sears, had planned to close at the end of May – its already done so.