General Growth's new CEO gets $1.2 mil. base salary

General Growth Properties Inc., the shopping-mall company planning to exit bankruptcy this month, will pay new Chief Executive Officer Sandeep Mathrani a $1.2 million base salary.

Chicago-based General Growth announced Mathrani's hiring last week. The former Vornado Realty Trust executive will also receive a $1 million signing bonus and reimbursement of relocation expenses up to $350,000, General Growth said in a regulatory filing today. Mathrani's annual target bonus is $1.5 million, with a guaranteed minimum bonus of $1 million in 2011 and 2012.

Mathrani will serve as a consultant to General Growth before starting as CEO on Jan. 17, according to the filing.

When General Growth emerges from bankruptcy, it will grant Mathrani 1.5 million shares that will vest in three equal installments. Mathrani also received options to buy 2 million shares that vest in four installments and have an exercise price of $10.25 a share.

Mathrani will succeed Adam Metz, who has held the position since October 2008.

General Growth last month won court approval for the last stage of its restructuring, a year and a half after filing the biggest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history. The company sought protection from creditors after it was unable to refinance debt because of the financial crisis and the collapse of the commercial mortgage-backed securities market.

Before joining Vornado in 2002, Mathrani was an executive vice president of Forest City Ratner, an affiliate of Cleveland- based Forest City Enterprises Inc., from 1994 to 2002.

General Growth, the second-biggest U.S. shopping-mall owner, has stakes in 185 retail centers in 43 states. Simon Property Group Inc. is the largest U.S. mall owner.