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Show 7- profit. Because we perform the construction service ourselves, borrow as much as we can without involving the credit of the parent company, our equity investment is kept relatively low. The projects have varied greatly mass rental housing, a grain elevator, office buildings, parking facilities, but the principle and the pattern is much the same. In the past several years we have disposed of projects constructed at a cost of some $75 million against which we borrowed $72 million without parent company liability. We sold our stock interest in these companies for a profit of $5,100,000 above our recorded cost of $1,900,000. More significant is the second kind of real estate activity which is the acquisition, improvement, and sale of raw acreage. In this instance we are not primarily interested in building structures but in selling land. The construction of commercial or industrial plants on the land we sell is a service that we are willing to perform for our clients but we do not insist upon it. Home building we leave to others. Nor do we buy land primarily for speculation in the hope that it will increase in value by a change of price in the market place. We buy land when we see an opportunity to cause it to change in value by some action or service on our part. This may be as simple as converting farm land to higher uses or as complicated as manufacturing useful land where none now exists. For example, in South San Francisco we leveled a mountain and spread it over marsh land; in Alameda we dredged sand from the bottom of the Bay and filled tidelands. Time does not permit the discussion of individual land projects, but they have been described in the fact booklet presented to you. We own or control some 10,000 acres in California and are confident that bur present value is substantially in excess of our cost. |