General Growth Properties Inc., the owner of the Providence Place mall, said yesterday that it will pay $48 million to settle a lawsuit by a developer that accused the company of interfering with a competing retail project.

General Growth, which lost 96 percent of its value in the past year and is selling assets to pay debt, owed Caruso Affiliated Holdings LLC $89.2 million in compensatory and punitive damages after losing a 2007 trial in Los Angeles.

The “settlement allows us to put this matter behind us and focus on the company’s ongoing operations and strategic evaluations,” Adam Metz, interim chief executive officer of Chicago-based General Growth, said in a statement.

The state court jury found that General Growth acted with malice when it tried to prevent restaurateur Cheesecake Factory Inc. from signing a lease at Caruso’s project near the Glendale Galleria mall in California that was co-owned by General Growth.