Lease revenue pares Maui Land loss

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. narrowed a net loss to $1 million in the second quarter from $2.5 million in the same period a year ago, the company reported Wednesday.

The owner of 23,000 acres of Valley Isle land and the developer of Kapalua Resort derived most of its revenue in the quarter from leasing the land. Other revenue came from utilities and resort amenities, but a lack of real estate sales continued to hurt the company’s bottom line.

Maui Land reported no real estate sales in the second quarter or the year-earlier quarter.

In several past quarters, the Kapalua-based company has relied largely on such sales to generate earnings or dampen losses.

In the recent quarter, lease revenue was $1.5 million, up from $1.1 million a year earlier. Revenue from operating resort amenities was $1 million, down from $1.5 million. Utility revenue was $714,000 compared with $931,000.

Maui Land has struggled after it quit growing pineapple in 2009 and focused on a resort condominium and time-share development project at Kapalua Bay that was hurt by meltdowns in the real estate and global finance markets.

Tim Esaki, Maui Land’s chief financial officer, said in a statement that the company is gaining from efforts to increase revenue from land leases, selling non-core real estate assets and reducing costs.

Shares of Maui Land stock closed Wednesday at $3.52 before the earnings announcement, unchanged from Tuesday. Through the past 52 weeks, the stock has closed as high as $5.02 on Aug. 3 and as low as $3.25 on July 20.