The developer of Ward Village booked a lot more revenue from sales of units in two rising Honolulu condominium towers during the second quarter even as the pace of sales stayed about flat.
Howard Hughes Corp. recognized $125 million in revenue primarily from its Waiea and Anaha towers in Kakaako in the three months ended June 30, a 45 percent jump from $87 million in the same period last year.
Texas-based Hughes Corp. reported the sales activity in a financial report filed Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
SECOND-QUARTER NET
$7 million
YEAR-EARLIER NET
$50.6 million
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The condo revenue gain reflected Hughes Corp. being able to count more revenue from existing sales as the towers get closer to being finished.
This is allowed under an accounting practice called “percentage of completion,” for recognizing revenue on a real estate sale as opposed to counting all the revenue from a sale when construction of a tower is completed and buyers complete their purchases with full payment.
Waiea is slated for completion by December, and Anaha should be done by June.
In terms of new sales during the quarter, volume was roughly flat from the prior quarter.
Hughes Corp. said it had no new sales at Waiea and 11 new sales at Anaha between April 19 and July 13. In a similar three-month period ended April 18, the number of additional sales was the same.
The stagnated pace of sales is due in part to relatively few units being available in the two towers. At Waiea, 91 percent of units — 158 of 174 — are sold. At Anaha, 92 percent of units — 292 of 317 — are sold.
Also, demand for very pricey units has weakened in the local market since last year. The two top penthouses in Waiea are priced at $36 million and $35 million. The average price for all Waiea units is $3.6 million.
Still, Hughes Corp. appears to be making slow progress selling units in another ultraluxury condo project that comprises two buildings named Ward Gateway Towers with a combined 236 units. It has yet to break ground.
Sales began 13 months ago in the first Gateway tower, which has 125 units and will replace part of the Ward Warehouse retail complex.
In recent financial reports, Hughes Corp. has said starting construction on Gateway is subject to a sufficient number of sales, though the number of sales or a potential construction timetable has not been disclosed. However, Race Randle, vice president of development in Hawaii for Hughes Corp., said at a public meeting last month that construction should start early next year and be finished in 2019 or 2020.
Hughes Corp. has two other towers with sales at Ward Village that have not yet been monetized as revenue.
One is Ae‘o, a 466-unit tower that broke ground in February. As of July 13, 241 units had been sold.
The other is Ke Kilohana, a 424-unit tower that has yet to start construction. A lottery in April sold 375 moderate-priced units, while another 49 market-priced units were released for sale last month. Construction on Ke Kilohana is slated to start by October and be finished in mid-2019.
Over the next year or so, sales at Ae‘o and possibly Ke Kilohana and Gateway could be claimed as revenue for Hughes Corp., though the company has noted that by late 2017 it will have to start booking revenue from condo sales after construction and customer purchases are completed because of an accounting rule change.
In the second quarter, revenue from Waiea and Anaha represented a little less than half of the company’s $272 million total revenue.
Other major sources of revenue were commercial property rents that included retail tenants at Ward Village and land sales at master-planned communities on the mainland.
“Significant contributions from each of our three business segments drove strong earnings results this quarter,” David Weinreb, Hughes Corp. CEO, said in a statement. “In particular, residential condominium sales volume at Ward Village continues to demonstrate the desirability of our community and the high-quality product that we are developing in Honolulu.”
Hughes Corp. has assets in 16 states, including master-planned communities such as Summerlin in Las Vegas and The Woodlands in Houston, as well as retail development projects such as South Street Seaport in New York and The Outlet Collection at Riverwalk in New Orleans.
The company said its net income for the quarter was $7 million. That was down from $50.6 million in the same quarter last year. The decline was mainly due to a $44 million noncash loss in the recent quarter and a $43 million noncash gain in the year-earlier quarter that related to the value of rights by shareholders to acquire stock in the company.
Excluding these valued rights as well as after-tax depreciation and amortization expenses, Hughes Corp. said its net income was $67.3 million in the recent quarter compared with $24.2 million a year earlier.
Shares of Hughes Corp. stock closed Monday at $121.71, up $1.23 from Friday after the earnings announcement. Shares in the last 52 weeks have closed between $138.49 on Aug. 17 and $81.34 on Feb. 16.