WATERSOUND — St. Joe Co. Chief Executive Officer Park Brady outlined a productive 2013 during an earnings announcement last week, despite a drop in the company’s net income for the year.
St. Joe posted a net income of $5 million for 2013, at $0.5 per share, which includes a non-cash impairment charge of $5.1 million. The company’s 2012 net income came in at $6 million, or $0.7 per share.
“The company took a number of important steps in the overall strategy development in 2013,” Brady said during a conference call with investors, citing actions made to shift St. Joe’s concentration toward Northwest Florida real estate development and away from agriculture.
The most major step, a $565 million deal to sell 383,000-acres of timberland, closed this week. St. Joe also entered into an agreement to sell its 4,000-acre Jacksonville development RiverTown for $43.6 million last year, Brady said.
Revenue gains in 2013 were observed in St. Joe’s residential and commercial real estate segments, and also the resorts, leisure and leasing segment.
Revenues in residential real estate saw the biggest gains, increasing 53 percent from $22.1 million in 2012 to $33.7 million in 2013.
St. Joe Chief Financial Officer Marek Bakun said majority of the increases were due to higher demand and higher pricing for home sites, with the largest volume occurring in WaterSound in South Walton County and Breakfast Point in Panama City Beach.
Revenue decreased in St. Joe’s forestry segment and also in rural land sales for 2013, pushing revenue for the full year down from $139.4 million in 2012 to $131.2 million in 2013.
Company officials said 2012 revenues were boosted by $23 million in rural land sales, citing them as transactions that are not easily repeated.
Brady also addressed other company projects during the call, including an effort to expand the West Bay Sector Plan to create an active retirement community similar to the Villages, and the development of Pier Park North in Panama City Beach, a 330,000-square foot shopping center that is nearing completion.
“It has been a productive year. The strong results are a culmination of hard work and focus on the bottom line,” Brady said. “We will concentrate on our core business activities of real estate development, expansion of resort operations, development of the port at Port St. Joe, and creation of a mixed-use and active adult community.”