Downey S&L; Earnings Mushroom for Quarter

Downey Savings & Loan Assn. reported net earnings of $11.1 million for the first quarter, nearly 11 times the $1.5 million in profit recorded a year earlier and nearly as much as the Costa Mesa S&L; made in all of 1984.

Downey President M.L. McAlister said in a brief telephone interview Wednesday that the S&L;’s record earnings were the result of a two-year program of “rearranging our way of doing business. We’ve trimmed costs, increased profit centers such as commercial banking, consumer loans, auto loans, boat loans, recreational vehicles (and) then we expanded upon our real estate investment activities. We have a lot of expertise there.”

Downey develops and sells residential projects and builds and leases shopping centers in California and Arizona.