Santa Ana-based Grubb & Ellis Co. on Tuesday reported a narrowed first-quarter loss.
The real estate brokerage and investor saw a $23.8 million loss, which was narrowed by nearly $18 million from a year earlier.
The company had revenue of $132.5 million, up 8%.
Grubb & Ellis’ losses were in line with what Wall Street analysts had expected.
Revenue was nearly $7 million higher than analysts had forecast.
The results were due in part to “a clear improvement in the broad fundamentals of the U.S. commercial real estate market,” said Thomas P. D’Arcy, Grubb’s chief executive and president, in a statement.
The first quarter is typically the weakest for the company in terms of revenue and profitability, officials said.
The company’s asset and property management business brought in $72.4 million of revenue in the first quarter, up 11% from year-ago levels.
Revenue tied to the company’s core transaction services totaled $42.2 million, up 26% from a year ago. That was due to the increased broker productivity and the recovering commercial real estate market, Grubb said.
Earnings in the company’s investment management business, which runs two non-traded real estate investment trusts, were $10.1 million in the quarter, off 35% from a year ago.
Grubb, which raised about $30 million in new capital earlier this month through a convertible notes offering, counts a market value of about $120 million.
