Maui Land &Pineapple Co. lightened its debt load but also shed a major asset in the third quarter as the company that was once a major real estate developer and pineapple producer continues to survive by selling property.

Kapalua-based Maui Land reported selling a 304-acre planned residential development site in West Maui on which it envisioned building 882 homes, commercial space, a school, churches and a community center.

The company sold the project, called Pulelehua, which is zoned for the envisioned uses, for $15 million and realized a $14.3 million gain. Maui Land reported the sale in a third-quarter earnings report released Wednesday.

The Pulelehua sale was the major driver of a $13.4 million profit in the April-June period. However, Maui Land said its proceeds from the land sale were used to pay off a $14.7 million American AgCredit loan secured by the property.

Pulelehua represented about 20 percent of 1,500 acres of Maui Land real estate in some stage of the development process. Most of this land is zoned for urban use. Maui Land also owns nearly 22,000 acres of land zoned for agricultural or conservation use.

Maui Land, which developed Kapalua Resort, had been more active in urban development and farming until several years ago after suffering big financial losses from both operations. The company quit pineapple farming in 2009 and had an investment in a resort development project turn bad amid the recession.

Since then, Maui Land has sold major assets, including two golf courses, to generate income, and has not had much money to advance other development plans.

Pulelehua was planned as a “working-class” community that Maui Land projected would cost $300 million to $500 million to develop. The buyer of the property, according to sale records, is Maui Oceanview LP, a firm affiliated with a company led by Dallas developer Paul Cheng of USA Infrastructure Investments that has developed master-planned communities and on Maui owns the retail complex Maui Harbor Shops.

Shares of Maui Land stock closed Wednesday at $6.36 before the earnings announcement. Shares over the past 52 weeks have closed between $4.92 on Aug. 29 and $7.41 on June 29.