Alexander & Baldwin Inc. boosted its profit more than sixfold by selling six warehouse, office and retail properties on the mainland in the first quarter.

The Honolulu-based real estate investment and development firm announced Tuesday that it earned $47.4 million in the first three months of this year compared with $7 million in the same period last year.

Most of the recent income was from selling six commercial real estate complexes on the mainland, which A&B said were sold for $159.2 million. Those sales, combined with a few other property sales in the first quarter, generated a $49.6 million gain.

A&B used sale proceeds to help finance its purchase of three Hawaii shopping centers — Laulani Village on Oahu, Pu‘unene Shopping Center on Maui and Hokulei Village on Kauai — for $256.7 million in February.

Chris Benjamin, A&B president and CEO, called the results from commercial real estate endeavors an “excellent” positive start to the year.

“Our core segment — commercial real estate — continued its strong financial and operating performance,” he said in a statement.

A&B’s commercial real estate business also includes operating a collection of mainly retail, industrial and office properties in Hawaii through which the company earns rental income from tenants. This segment of A&B’s business generated a $15.5 million operating profit in the first quarter, up 8 percent from $14.3 million a year earlier.

Other A&B divisions didn’t do so well.

A division A&B refers to as “land operations” generated a $5.4 million operating loss in the first quarter, which was worse than a $2.4 million operating loss a year earlier. The recent loss occurred despite selling $28 million worth of residential units at neighbor island resort properties and a Kahala Avenue house lot on Oahu. A&B said the operating loss was principally a result of $4.2 million in costs related to construction and remediation on a development project managed by a joint-venture partner.

A&B’s other major division, the road construction and materials business of subsidiary Grace Pacific, generated a $200,000 operating profit in the first quarter, down from $5.6 million a year earlier. A&B said bad weather prevented crews from working on more than twice as many days in the quarter compared with last year’s first quarter — 109.5 days in the recent period compared with 51 days a year earlier.

Shares of A&B stock closed Tuesday at $23.18 on the New York Stock Exchange before the earnings announcement. A&B share prices over the last 52 weeks have closed between $29.88 on Oct. 3 and $21.99 on Feb. 28.