General Growth Properties Inc., owner and manager of Jordan Creek Town Center, said yesterday that funds from operations, a performance measure of real estate investment trusts, fell 54.6 percent compared with a year earlier, Reuters reported.

The company reported first-quarter funds from operations of $223.2 million, or 75 cents per share, compared with $491.7 million, or $1.66 per share, in the prior year, when the company recognized a tax benefit of $298.2 million, or $1 per share. According to Reuters Estimates, the results were ahead of the average of analysts’ forecasts of 74 cents per share.

For its retail centers only, the company said first-quarter FFO, or “core” FFO, of $226.6 million, or 76 cents per share, compared with $192.4 million, or 65 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter. FFO removes the profit-reducing effect that depreciation, a noncash accounting item, has on earnings.

Last month, General Growth refinanced several properties and cleared $821.9 million from an offering of 22.8 million shares. General Growth lowered its 2008 forecast for core FFO to a range of $3.52 to $3.58 per share from a previous view of $3.58 to $3.61 per share. Analysts see $3.50 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.