CHICAGO — General Growth Properties Inc., whose Hawai'i holdings include Ala Moana Center and Ward Centers, failed to reach unanimous agreement with lenders on extending the maturity of $900 million in loans for properties in Las Vegas that were due Friday.

Asked if the company was in default on the Las Vegas loans, General Growth spokesman Tim Goebel said yesterday that the lenders "haven't acted against us and we're talking."

Talks with the lenders who hold the mortgages on the Fashion Show and the Palazzo properties are continuing, the Chicago-based company said today in a statement.

General Growth lost 96 percent of its value this year on investor concern that it is carrying too much debt amid a global credit crisis that has slashed consumer spending and reduced real estate values.

The company had $25 billion of mortgages, notes and loans as of Sept. 30.

In October, General Growth hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Eastdil Securities to sell the retail properties in Las Vegas. Gambling proceeds on the Las Vegas Strip fell 26 percent to $475 million in October from a year earlier, the 10th straight monthly decline, Nevada's Gaming Control Board said in a Dec. 10 statement.

The company on Dec. 12 said it refinanced $814 million of other mortgage loans to try to stave off bankruptcy.

General Growth's woes stem from its $11.3 billion purchase of Rouse Co. in November 2004, financed almost completely with debt.

General Growth rose 5 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $1.85 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.