General Growth Properties Inc., the Chicago-based company that owns and operates both the NorthTown Mall and Spokane Valley Mall, has reported an increase in third-quarter earnings compared with the year-earlier period. 

The company posted third-quarter net income attributable to common shareholders, of $670 million, or 70 cents a diluted share, up from $120 million, or 13 cents a share, in the 2015 third quarter.

Overall company earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization increased 4.6 percent, to $528 million in the latest quarter, from $505 million in the prior-year period. 

In its earnings release, GGP says it had a same-store lease percentage of 96.7 percent at the quarter’s end. Also, it said that initial rental rates for signed leases that have been inked in the past 12 months increased by 12 percent compared with rates on expiring leases. 

Same-property net operating income for the three months ended Sept. 30 increased 3.8 percent to $544 million, up from $524 million in the year-earlier period. 

For the nine months that ended Sept. 30, the company has posted net income of $1.1 billion, or $1.09 cents a share, down from $1.2 billion in the prior-year period. 

In the third quarter, GGP repaid a mortgage loan on the Mall of Louisiana, in Baton Rouge, for about $202 million with an interest rate of 5.8 percent. The company also repaid a mortgage loan on Apache Mall, in Rochester, Minn., for about $93 million with an interest rate of 4.3 percent, and repaid the $90 million that was outstanding on the credit facility. 

For the nine months ending Sept. 30, company earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization increased 7 percent to $1.6 billion from $1.5 billion in the prior-year period. 

Company same-property net operating income for the nine months ended Sept. 30 increased 4.2 percent to $1.623 billion, up from $ 1.55 billion in the year-earlier period.

GGP, a Fortune 500 company, said its current development and redevelopment activities total $1 billion, with about $600 million of that work under construction and the rest of it in the pipeline.  

Separately, the company declared a fourth-quarter common stock dividend of 22 cents per share, an increase of 16 percent over the prior year.