Financially strapped General Growth Properties Inc. wants to sell the Providence Place mall to help cut its $27-billion debt, a company spokesman told The Providence Journal.

General Growth (GGP:NYSE) put the mall up for sale amid last month’s Christmas rush, confirmed David Keating, senior director of corporate communications for Chicago-based General Growth. He did not disclose an offering price on the mall. The offering is being handled by Savills Granite LLC, a New York brokerage.

A sale of Providence Place would not affect the prospects of the retailers who rent space there. The nation’s retailers have their own issues as they deal with a sharp downturn in consumer spending.

Should the mall be sold, visitors would be hard-pressed to notice the change anywhere but in the small print on some signs inside the mall.

The decision to try to sell Providence Place followed closely on General Growth’s decision to put up for sale the historic Faneuil Hall Marketplace, in Boston; South Street Seaport, in Manhattan, and Harborplace & the Gallery, in Baltimore.

General Growth snatched up those, and other, marquee properties during years of debt-fueled growth. It now owns or manages more than 200 malls in 44 states.

The company had $24.8 billion of mortgages, notes and loans as of Sept. 30.

Last month, lenders agreed to extend a deadline to pay or rework $900 million in loans on two Las Vegas properties the company has put up for sale. The loans, for the Fashion Show Mall and the Shoppes at the Palazzo, are now due Feb. 12.

The company still faces the prospect of defaulting on the loans, and has said that if it can’t refinance debt it may have to file for bankruptcy protection.

While its parent company is suffering from that buying binge, Providence Place apparently stands on firmer footing. Real-estate analyst Jeff Green, of Jeff Green Partners, in San Francisco, estimated the annual mall sales at $525 per square foot.

“Providence Place performs darn well,” Green said. “[The offering] means there’s a lot of value in it and they’re trying to sell it to pay off other debts.”

General Growth took control of the mall in August 2004 when it bought the Rouse Co. for $12.6 billion. Rouse had owned the mall for only a few months, having purchased the property for $510 million from the mall’s original owners.

The mall cost $460 million to build.

General Growth and Rouse were willing to pay a high price for the mall because stores there generate millions in sales.

In 2007, stores in Providence Place generated a record $13,981,625 in sales taxes for the state. Full-year numbers for 2008 won’t be available until next month.

Green graded the property an A- or B+ in terms of sales.

So why sell?

Tight credit markets make it nearly impossible to sell a poor-performing property, said another analyst.

“The only thing you can sell is a property that is doing well,” said Joel Bloomer, a senior equity analyst at investment research firm Morningstar.

The dearth of financing means the mall is unlikely to change hands quickly, Bloomer said. Buyers with enough cash may wait to pick up Providence Place in a bankruptcy sale.

“That’s part of the problem right now, there aren’t a lot of large buyers out there,” Bloomer said.

pgrimald@projo.com