Three large commercial real estate sales helped drive up Alexander & Baldwin Inc. third-quarter profits 76 percent to $49.1 million from $27.9 million in the same quarter last year.

The Honolulu-based company said sales of two Maui shopping centers and the land under the Honolulu Don Quijote store generated the "whopper" earnings performance, though property leasing and ocean transportation businesses also had solid results. A&B's agriculture operations lost money.

"I'm very pleased to note that we posted a very strong third quarter with net income exceeding $49 million — it's an impressive figure," Allen Doane, A&B chairman and CEO, told Wall Street analysts in a conference call yesterday.

The strong quarter builds on what has been a highly profitable year for the company despite indications that Hawai'i's economic growth is slowing. For the first nine months of the year, A&B's profit totaled $105.8 million, up 11 percent from $95.5 million in the same period last year.

Doane said fourth-quarter earnings are forecast to be moderately lower but should still result in "very strong" full-year comparisons.

Proceeds from the real estate sales are to be reinvested in other property through tax-deferred exchanges. A&B yesterday announced that it has contracted to buy a Dallas industrial park for $102 million in a deal expected to be completed next month.

A&B said the property next to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport represents an attractive investment with expansion potential.

The property, called Heritage Business Park, is a complex of seven buildings totaling 1.3 million square feet of warehouse space built on 83 acres from 1997 to 2002. Tenants occupy 98 percent of the space. The park also includes 28 acres of land that can be developed with about 400,000 square feet of additional warehouse space.

The acquisition will boost A&B's income-producing investment property portfolio to about 6.6 million square feet of retail, office and industrial space in Hawai'i and on the Mainland.

A&B has been capitalizing on Hawai'i's real estate market as that has boomed over the past several years, but noted that large real estate transactions by their nature are episodic.

During the third quarter, operating profit from property sales was $37.9 million, compared with $1.2 million a year earlier, mostly from selling the Don Quijote land, the Fairway Shops at Ka'anapali and Napili Plaza. The amount also includes $4 million related to sales at A&B's Kai Malu residential joint-venture development in Wailea, Maui.

Real estate leasing in the third quarter yielded an operating profit of $12.2 million, down 2 percent from $12.5 million a year ago.

In ocean transportation, A&B subsidiary Matson Navigation Co. posted an operating profit of $38.6 million, up 13 percent from $34.2 million a year ago.

A&B said the improvement was largely from its China-California service, which began early last year and more than offset weaker Hawai'i service during the quarter.

Hawai'i container volume was down 4 percent, largely from reduced demand for building materials. But Hawai'i automobile shipping was up 14 percent, largely because of rental car company fleet replacements.

Matson's land-based transportation services unit posted an operating profit of $6 million, up 18 percent from $5.1 million a year ago.

A&B's agriculture business reported an operating loss of $3.2 million, compared with a $600,000 profit a year earlier as sugar production was down 15 percent in the recent quarter.

Total revenue for A&B in the third quarter was $434.7 million, compared with $421.2 million a year earlier. Revenue for the first nine months of the year totaled $1.245 billion, up from $1.196 billion in the same period of 2006.

A&B's third-quarter earnings per diluted share were $1.14, up from 65 cents a year earlier. Per-share earnings for the nine-month period were $2.46, compared with $2.18 a year earlier.

Shares of A&B stock closed yesterday up $1.26 at $51.83. That compared with a 52-week high of $58.19 on July 19 and a 52-week low of $43.54 on Nov. 27, 2006.

A&B said it bought back 263,000 shares of its stock on the open market during the quarter for almost $13 million, or $48.99 per share on average.

The company has bought back shares in each of the last two years, and is authorized by its board to buy back up to 1.7 million shares.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.