The likelihood of a bankruptcy filing is looming larger for mall giant General Growth Properties Inc., threatening to overlay the worst retail market in decades with one of the biggest real-estate bankruptcies ever, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The company, whose Hawaii holdings include Ala Moana Center and Ward Centers in Honolulu, must extend the payment deadlines of two debts that lenders could call due a few weeks from now: a $2.6 billion credit line and a $900 million mortgage on two Las Vegas malls.

At a meeting with lenders in New York on Monday, General Growth senior management and advisers outlined separate scenarios of the company operating under bankruptcy protection or instead grappling with its debt burden outside of bankruptcy court, according to people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Sources told the Journal a bankruptcy filing isn't imminent. Indeed, the company last month won an extension of both loans, giving it six to eight weeks of breathing room. On Monday, General Growth representatives asked the lenders to extend their deadlines on the credit line and Las Vegas loans from Jan. 30 and Feb. 12, respectively, to March 15, the sources said.