J.M. Peters Reports Profit of $4.7 Million

In what its president called “the real turnaround point for us,” home builder J.M. Peters Co. said Thursday it posted a profit of $4.7 million for September--its first in 39 months.

Though most of the earnings came from a onetime gain of $4.4 million, J.M. Peters also recorded a $340,000 profit from its business of building and selling homes.

“This is the direction we’ll be heading from now on,” company President Dale Dowers said.

The company also erased its first-half operating loss and recorded a $1.2-million profit for the first seven months of its fiscal year, he said.

Making that possible was Capital Pacific Homes’ acquisition of a controlling interest in J.M. Peters Co. from the federal Resolution Trust Corp. in August, 1992. The private holding company bought several thousand J.M. Peters lots as part of a deal in which a large chunk of J.M. Peters debt was forgiven.

Developer Hadi Makarechian is chairman of Capital Pacific, and Dowers is president.

J.M. Peters Co. also said Thursday that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of Durable Homes Inc., a Las Vegas home builder, for $1.3 million in cash and 1 million new shares of common stock. Durable, which specializes in modestly priced homes for first-time buyers, has been a profitable company throughout the current recession.

Makarechian, who is also J.M. Peters’ chairman, said in a recent interview that he and Dowers are exploring the possibility of establishing a Southern California division of Durable to concentrate on entry-level housing while J.M. Peters continues specializing in larger, more expensive homes.