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CHICAGO — Brookfield Properties is turning over Water Tower Place to its lender, a unit of insurer MetLife, according to reports by the Chicago Sun-Times and Crain’s Chicago Business. The two media outlets report that the action indicates that the shopping mall is worth less than the estimated $300 million in debt owed on it. Situated on North Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, the mall lost its anchor tenant Macy’s last year. The property, which was the city’s first indoor mall when it opened in 1975, rises nine stories and spans 818,000 square feet. Today, nearly a quarter of all of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile retail space is vacant, more than double its vacancy four years ago, according to Crain’s.