A Honolulu firm that owns a collection of office buildings reduced the size of a third-quarter net loss but also saw the size of its property portfolio shrink a bit.

Pacific Office Properties Trust Inc. filed a financial report Friday stating it lost $3.1 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, representing a 30 percent improvement from a $4.4 million loss in the same period last year.

Part of the improvement was from selling a Los Angeles office building in which Pacific Office held a 5 percent ownership interest. The sale in September of the property called Valencia Corporate Center produced a $700,000 gain for the firm, according to the report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Following the sale, Pacific Office has whole ownership of three Honolulu office buildings — Waterfront Plaza, Davies Pacific Center and the Pan Am Building — and 5 percent stakes in one Honolulu building at 1833 Kalakaua Ave. and one in Phoenix.

The Los Angeles property sale represents a continuation of Pacific Office’s portfolio contracting from a high of 24 properties in an effort to recover from an ill-timed expansion plan.

Local real estate investor Jay Shidler formed the company in 2008 with public stock ownership as a way to finance acquisition of more office buildings. However, the company’s launch and expansion effort coincided with the U.S. economic recession, and Pacific Office ended up selling or losing most of its buildings to foreclosure in recent years.

Now the Honolulu firm is focused on generating cash and being as efficient as it can with operations.

“We have taken steps to identify opportunities to reduce discretionary operating costs wherever possible and at the same time maintaining the quality of our buildings and the integrity of our management services,” the company said in the report.

Part of the efficiency effort involved a Shidler firm that manages Pacific Office’s real estate, Shidler Pacific Advisors, reducing its quarterly management fee at the start of this year to $175,000 from $213,300, the company noted.

Pacific Office said it expects to meet capital requirements through options that include cash generated by operations, debt and possibly selling partial or whole stakes in property.

The company reported having $4.4 million in unrestricted cash and $3.2 million in restricted cash at the end of the quarter. That was down from $6.5 million in unrestricted cash and $3.5 million in restricted cash at the end of the second quarter.

Revenue in the third quarter totaled $11.2 million, down from $11.4 million a year earlier.

At the end of the quarter, 87 percent of the office space in Pacific Office’s three wholly owned Honolulu buildings was leased, up from 86 percent a year earlier.

Stock in Pacific Office last traded on Friday, closing at 40 cents per share. In the last 52 weeks, the company’s stock has closed as high as 80 cents on Sept. 24 and as low as 7 cents on Jan. 20. Pacific Office stock’s initial public offering took place in March 2008 at almost $7 a share.