Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners' interestin saving JCPenney, which filed for bankruptcy last month, has beenwell documented after being first reported by The Wall StreetJournal.

This potential move makes a lot of sense, according to EricRapkin, the chair of Akerman's Real Estate practice group. JCPenneyis one of Simon's top anchor tenants. By controlling thedepartment-store chain, the mall owner can keep its anchor tenantand maintain occupancy since smaller retailers depend on largertenants to drive foot traffic.

"I don't think this will be a land rush for real estate ownersto buy up their tenants who are going under," Rapkin says. "But incertain situations where the retailer makes up a significantportion of a mall owner's portfolio, and you can acquire them [theretailer] at a very attractive price in bankruptcy, there are a lotof good reasons to do it."