Handing the keys back to your lender isn't as easy as it sounds, at least not in commercial real estate. Mall owner Glimcher Realty Trust, which warned for months that it might forfeit the Eastland Mall in Charlotte, N.C., by the end of the year, instead struck a deal last week to keep the property for a while longer.

Glimcher agreed with Capco America Securitization Corp., the servicer of the mall's $42.2 million mortgage, to extend the payment deadline to Sept. 11, 2009. In the meantime, Glimcher will continue to run the mall, pay its operating costs and interest up to a $2.2 million cap and market it for sale. When either the mall is sold or the deadline passes, the pact allows Glimcher to walk away from the mortgage without further obligations.

The mortgage originally was to be paid by last Sept. 11, or else its interest rate would rise. Glimcher didn't pay off the loan, reasoning that it would surrender Eastland Mall because the property's value had declined to below the mortgage amount.

Trouble was, Glimcher couldn't force Capco to foreclose, meaning that walking away would have sacrificed an asset while leaving $42 million of debt on Glimcher's books. That would have pushed the Columbus, Ohio, real-estate investment trust close to violating covenants on a separate credit facility, according to Ben Yang, an analyst with Green Street Advisors Inc.

Market Balm

Here's hope for the stalled commercial real-estate debt market: TALF.

Under the program dubbed Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, the Federal Reserve pledged to lend as much as $200 billion to holders of certain high-grade securities backed by assets such as student loans and credit-card loans. But government officials said the plan also could be expanded over time to include commercial mortgage-backed securities, or CMBS.

"The hope is that the government can provide direct or indirect financing" for buyers of CMBS that have clogged banks' balance sheets since the credit-market crisis took hold in the summer of 2007, said Christopher Hoeffel, president of the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association.

"We need more leverage to grease the wheels," Mr. Hoeffel said.

Dubai Trump in Doubt

The glitzy Trump International Hotel %26amp; Tower project on a palm-shaped island off Dubai has been felled, temporarily, by the global financial crisis.

State-owned Dubai real-estate developer Nakheel suspended the $790-million project on Palm Jumeirah island after announcing it will cut 15% of its work force. The Trump tower was to soar over the trunk of the man-made, tree-shaped island.

Two partners in the Trump project, South Africa's Murray %26amp; Roberts Holdings Ltd. and Australian construction firm Leighton Holdings Ltd., said the suspension won't have a material impact on their performance.