2 execs leave General Growth

General Growth Properties Inc., the second-largest U.S. mall owner, said two top executives are stepping down as Sandeep Mathrani prepares to take over as chief executive officer this month.

Vice Chairman Robert Michaels and Ronald Gern, general counsel, are leaving the company, David Keating, a General Growth spokesman, said today in an e-mail. No date has been set for their departures, he said.

Michaels, who joined General Growth in 1972, was president and chief operating officer before becoming vice chairman in 2009, according to a regulatory filing by the Chicago-based company. Gern started at General Growth in 1997.

Mathrani, previously president of the retail division at New York-based Vornado Realty Trust, assumes the CEO position Jan. 17, succeeding Adam Metz, who held the job since 2008 and led the company through its bankruptcy reorganization.

General Growth exited the biggest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history in November, a year and a half after filing. The company filed for Chapter 11 after it was unable to refinance debt because of the financial crisis and the collapse of the commercial mortgage-backed securities market.

The planned departures were reported earlier today by the Wall Street Journal.