Hawaii’s second-biggest retail property landlord earned a modest profit last year amid coronavirus pandemic impacts after two straight annual losses.
Honolulu-based Alexander &Baldwin Inc. announced in a financial report Thursday that it earned $5.2 million last year, which compared with a $38.4 million loss in 2019 and a $69.8 million loss in 2018.
A&B’s report showed that its core business of leasing Hawaii commercial property to mostly retail, but also office and industrial tenants, drove most of the company’s 2020 profit, with a smaller contribution from real estate sales.
“While COVID-19 generally made 2020 a year to forget, I’m very proud of what we accomplished at A&B over the past year and how we have positioned our company for growing success in 2021,” Chris Benjamin, company president and CEO, said in a conference call with stock analysts Thursday.
A&B’s earlier annual losses were driven mainly by noncash value write-downs for major but noncore operations — to road paving and materials subsidiary Grace Pacific in 2019, and to Grace and a joint-venture stake in the Kukui‘ula residential resort development project on Kauai in 2018.
Last year Grace was still a financial drag on A&B with a $12.4 million operating loss, though that was a huge improvement from the prior year.
Another big accomplishment for A&B last year was keeping retail tenant occupancy above 90% despite government-imposed coronavirus safety restrictions that have hurt the ability
of many retailers to pay
rent and put others out of business.
A&B has about 650 retail tenants statewide at more than a dozen shopping centers primarily anchored
by grocery stores serving residents.
At the end of last year, A&B’s retail occupancy was 91.2%, down from 93.3%
12 months earlier.
“Grocery-anchored,
community-based retail and services are and will remain critically important,” Benjamin said. “There may be some fallout of certain tenants and a period of transition, but the demand for food, goods, services and lifestyle activities in local communities is only going
to grow as people’s lives increasingly are centered around their homes, families and neighborhoods.”
A&B properties include Aikahi Park Shopping Center, Manoa Marketplace, Pearl Highlands Center,
Kahului Shopping Center, Kunia Shopping Center, Waipio Shopping Center, Waianae Mall, Kaneohe Bay Shopping Center and most of the commercial core of Kailua.
Only two A&B shopping centers are heavily dependent on tourism: the Shops at Kukui‘ula on Kauai and Queens’ Marketplace on
Hawaii island.
A&B said it deferred tenant rent in 199 cases last year valued at $5.9 million due to COVID-19, and that $2.4 million was repaid by year’s end. Nearly all the remaining balance is due this year. A&B also reported modifying leases in 107 cases, which include deals with adjusted rent and lengthened leases.
Revenue from real estate leasing at A&B was $150 million last year, down from $160.6 million the year before. Total revenue, which also includes real estate sales and Grace operations, was $305.3 million last year, down from $435.2 million the year before.
Real estate sales last year at A&B included a Kauai solar farm, 1,200 acres of land and 18 units at Kukui‘ula.
Operating profit from
real estate sales totaled $17.3 million last year, down from $20.8 million the year before.
By comparison, operating profit from property leasing totaled $49.8 million for the year, down from $66.2 million a year earlier.
The company’s net income of $5.2 million last year included a fourth-
quarter profit of $1.1 million.
The positive results prompted A&B’s board to reinstate a dividend to shareholders during the fourth quarter after suspending the dividend in April. The reinstated dividend of 15 cents per stock share was payable Jan. 12. A&B also announced Tuesday it will pay a first-
quarter dividend in the same amount.
Shares of A&B on the New York Stock Exchange closed Thursday at $18.48. Shares over the last 52 weeks peaked at $21.78 a year prior to Thursday, and hit a low of $8.79 March 23.
