HOUSTON -- A company that owns five Houston area malls said Wednesday that it may have to file for bankruptcy, KPRC Local 2 reported.

That concerns some folks who shop at those malls. Margo Eisenberg has lived in northwest Harris County since 1981, where Willowbrook Mall is located.

"We've had a lot of growth in the area," Eisenberg said. "I wouldn't have thought that they were having as much of a problem."

But it's not the malls -- it's the parent company, General Growth Properties. The Chicago-based company owns Baybrook Mall, Deerbrook Mall, First Colony Mall, The Woodlands Mall and Willowbrook Mall.

The company reported that it is having problems extending and refinancing its debts and may need protection from creditors.

"I hope the mall doesn't close because this is the mall that I frequent," mall customer Allison Stein said.

Barton Smith, an economics professor at the University of Houston, said that although the company has nearly $1 billion in debt due by Dec. 1 and another $3 billion due next year, customers may not see any noticeable impact at the malls.

"If they fall under bankruptcy protection, malls are going to continue to operate," Smith said. "Stores will continue to do their best through a stingy Christmas holiday season. We won't know it."

Smith said most of the malls themselves are actually making money, despite a slow down in spending.

"That's not the issue," he said. "The issue that in the expansionary mode of the last few years. (General Growth Properties) took on so much debt that they now cannot refinance. They are caught between a rock and a hard place."

Smith said the announcement may be the company's way of testing the marketplace for a potential buyout.

"They are absolutely a perfect example of a business getting way ahead of the curve and now paying the price," Smith said.

General growth properties is also a 50 percent stakeholder in The Woodlands community.