If General Growth Properties, the Illinois company that owns Glenbrook Square, goes bankrupt, there’s little chance the mall would be boarded up. Glenbrook’s size, its location and its array of tenants – the same factors that have kept it in business for 40 years – won’t disappear because of its owner’s financial distress.

General Growth warned this week that its debt coming due next month and through 2009 could force it to declare bankruptcy. In a statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, General Growth disclosed that it has $958 million in debt scheduled to mature by Dec. 1 and another $3.07 billion in debt due in 2009.

If it does enter bankruptcy, the same characteristics of Glenbrook that moved General Growth to pay $219 million for it in 2003 could well entice another buyer to purchase it. Even if it weren’t quickly purchased as part of bankruptcy proceedings, the rent paid by its 160 tenants probably would provide revenue to continue paying mall employees and vendors who supply it, said Kent Maggard, community president of Fifth Third Bank, Northeast Indiana.

That’s not to say everything will be just fine if General Growth declares bankruptcy.

In its filing with the SEC, General Growth warned that worsening economic conditions through the end of this year and 2009 could make it harder for stores in its malls to pay their rent. The tough economy could make it less likely to attract new tenants at the same rates as existing tenants pay, it said.

And a bad year for Glenbrook and its owner could give Allen County taxpayers a bad year, too. Allen County Treasurer Bob Lee wasn’t able Friday to say how much tax was paid last year on the Glenbrook property. (Last-minute property tax payments kept him and his staff very busy Friday.) But he did say local government enjoys a prime position when it comes to collecting property on real estate of bankrupt property owners. The county can place liens on real estate.

“But on personal property (such as depreciable equipment), we are a creditor, and we have to get in line and fight with the others,” Lee said.

General Growth’s stock closed Friday at 44 cents a share, up slightly for the day but down more than 99 percent from its peak price during the last year. General Growth is the second-largest mall owner in the country, with more than 200 malls.