CHICAGO — The stock of General Growth Properties Inc., the owner of the Providence Place mall, plummeted yesterday after the company warned that it may be forced to file for bankruptcy if it can’t refinance or extend nearly $1 billion in debt due next month.

The real estate investment trust, which is the nation’s second-largest mall owner whose big-name holdings include Chicago’s Water Tower Place and Fashion Show in Las Vegas, also disclosed in a regulatory filing late Monday that it may default on certain debt obligations.

Making matters worse is another $3.07 billion in property and corporate debt slated to come due next year.

“Given the continued weakness of the retail and credit markets, there can be no assurance that we can obtain such extensions or refinance our existing debt or obtain the additional capital necessary to satisfy our short-term cash needs on satisfactory terms,” the Chicago-based REIT said in filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Our potential inability to address our 2008 and 2009 debt maturities in a satisfactory fashion raises substantial doubts as to our ability to continue as a going concern.”

General Growth plunged 88 cents, or 64 percent, to close at 49 cents per share in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It fell another 10 cents, to 39 cents per share in after-hours trading. The decline was the biggest for the Chicago-based company since its April 1993 initial public offering of shares.

Investors have been dumping the shares. It has lost more than 98 percent of its market value this year. General Growth’s problems stem from its $11.3-billion purchase of Rouse Co. in 2004, financed almost completely with debt, leaving the company highly leveraged ever since, said Rich Moore, managing director at RBC Capital Markets in Cleveland.

“They took a big, big gamble, and it did not pay off,” Moore said in an interview.

The transfer of ownership of Providence Place was included in the Rouse transaction.

General Growth is trying to sell off properties and cut costs to weather the rocky economic climate.

Chief executive officer John Bucksbaum was replaced last month with interim CEO Adam Metz, and chief financial officer Bernard Freibaum was fired after he sold 2.95 million shares to meet margin calls. Bucksbaum remains chairman.

But that hasn’t calmed investors, who’ve sent the company’s shares into a virtual free-fall since September.

Citigroup analyst Michael Bilerman said General Growth’s equity holders may still be at risk, even if the company opts not to file for bankruptcy protection.

“There is no quick fix in the current capital-constrained environment,” he told investors late Monday night.

General Growth has also scrapped future development plans, and cut its forecast for 2008 funds from operations, excluding items, saying it expects to earn $2.85 to $2.95 a share. It had predicted FFO of $3.42 a share. The company has also said it plans to sell malls in Las Vegas as part of a plan to raise cash.

While General Growth’s statement that it may seek protection from creditors “has been an obvious one to the market for some time, it is the first time that we can recall the company has put it in print,” J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. analysts led by Michael W. Mueller said in a note to investors. The company “continues to have its back against a wall with massive near-term maturities in a credit crunch. We continue to recommend that investors not step in at current levels.”

Another risk for General Growth, the company said in the filing, is its low stock price. Should the shares remain below $1 each for 30 consecutive days, they could be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. A delisting or threat of delisting could result in a default under certain debt facilities, General Growth said.

RBC analyst Moore, who has an “outperform” rating on General Growth’s shares, said he doesn’t believe the SEC filing means the company is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy protection. Rather, Metz used the filing to both put pressure on creditors and alert investors to the risks confronting General Growth after the company’s previous management team was criticized for not being “as upfront as they could be,” he said.

“What management did is to say, ‘Let’s be real. This is what we’re facing. If we don’t get it done, there are going to be consequences,’ ” Moore said.