Major Connecticut landlord Griffin Land & Nurseries Inc. sank into the red in its fourth quarter on dwindled revenue from rents and sales of land and landscaping supplies. It also finally came clean on one of the worst-kept secrets involving sale of its large Windsor tract last summer.
For three months ended Dec. 1, the New York City landowner-nursery operator said it lost a net $1 million, or 20 cents a diluted share. That contrasts to $712,000, or 12 cents a share, netted the comparable period a year earlier.
Fourth-quarter revenue was $6.7 million vs. $10.9 million a year earlier.
For the fiscal 12 months, Griffin netted $966,000, or 19 cents a share, reversing its year-earlier loss of $2.5 million, or 48 cents a share.
Full-year revenue was $23.8 million vs. $22.2 million a year earlier.
Griffin’s year-end results also were noteworthy in that the company finally publicly confirmed that discount retailer Dollar Tree Inc. as the purchaser of 93 undeveloped acres in Windsor last July for a $104 million, one-million-square-foot distribution center on the site.
Dollar Tree’s identity was publicly known from town records almost as soon as the ink on the deal was dry, but Griffin steadfastly refused to confirm it to media outlets.
In its latest earnings statement, Griffin also disclosed that it’s on the hook to Dollar to lay in the first half of this year a sewer line to service the tract in the New England Tradeport industrial park. The landlord didn’t specify the cost.
However, the landlord says it’s had to adjust upward the cost of the line due to rising construction costs since its original estimate last fall.
Griffin said it booked revenue from that land sale of about $4.7 million, and an initial gain of approximately $3.9 million. The gain is expected to ultimately settle at about $5.9 million, one sewer-line installation is factored in, finance chief Anthony Galici said Thursday.
