General Growth Properties once thought their 16,000 retail tenants might pay $100 a month or more for access to a high-speed communications network that not only would support mall operations, but on-line sales. That would have earned the REIT $19 million, or a 15% return on its technology investment, which soared beyond the company's original budget. However, retailers ultimately were reluctant to dive into the deeper end of the e-commerce pool. For instance, clothing retailer Gap discovered its interactive kiosks in their stores weren't generating the sales as expected.

"They like all this; it's just that when the tech world came to a halt, there was far less pressure on the retailer to adopt this immediately," says General Growth Properties CEO John Bucksbaum. "I don't regret what we did. However, there's no doubt we've incurred a significant writeoff."

Although General Growth Properties is expected to report a net loss for the second quarter on July 31, the write-off is not expected to affect the REIT's ability to pay its scheduled dividends or its funds from real estate operations. General Growth Properties stock was down 1.5% Friday to $37 per share.