St. Joe Co. 4Q loss widens on $84M in charges

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.

The St. Joe Co. reported Tuesday that its fourth-quarter loss more than doubled and the Florida real estate developer posted its second yearly decline in profit.

Charges linked to real estate sales added up to $84 million, or 56 cents per share after taxes. A single impairment charge from asset sales at a planned-community housing development in DeLand, Fla., was $67.8 million.

Florida is among the states with the highest concentration of bank failures and where the meltdown in the real estate market brought an avalanche of soured mortgage loans. Last year saw the failure of 14 banks in the state.

For the three months ended Dec. 31, St. Joe reported a loss of $59.3 million, or 65 cents per share, compared with a loss of $27.9 million, or 31 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Pretax charges over the past three months far exceeded last year's total of $57.9 million and company shares fell more than 3 percent.

Revenue tumbled 18 percent to $37.1 million. The biggest revenue component, real estate sales, dropped 22 percent to $25.8 million from $33.1 million.

St. Joe owned about 577,000 acres, primarily in northwestern Florida, as of Dec. 31, with about 70 percent of the total located within 15 miles of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

St. Joe is banking on the success of a venture near a new airport in Panama City.

Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport is due to open May 23. Southwest Airlines is offering air service there as part of a strategic alliance with St. Joe.

St. Joe shares fell 93 cents to $28.62 Tuesday.